All in the past
by Cadnobach
Summary: Complete :o) A Lucas's past story, but with a few other things thrown in to the mix. Season One. Please Read and Review.
1. Chapter 1

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my other stories, and thanks to those who suggested I write a "finding out Lucas's past" story.

I don't own anything, or anyone, that is owned by someone else, or make any money or intentionally infringe any copyrights – this applies to all the following chapters too. I do however claim the plot as mine.

Might be a little bit slow to start with, but it will warm up soon – Promise :o)

Oh, and I still don't have a beta editor, so apologies in advance for any errors I missed.

Chapter One.

"Do I have to go?"

Nathan Bridger rolled his eyes. "You said you wanted to go, you nagged me for weeks to get you a place at the conference." The World Conference was billed as the calendar highlight, in the world of research and development. And every country and organisation in the world sent a delegation to highlight any break throughs they had made in the last twelve months. 

"I just wanted to _go _to the conference, not give a lecture at it." Lucas crossed his arms and slouched in his seat.

"You only have to give two lectures." Kristen tried to reason.

"Can't I just go to the conference like a normal person?" Lucas complained.

Bridger sighed; he couldn't work out why Lucas was being so difficult about his.

"Lucas, we thought that you'd be pleased, being asked to give a lecture at a conference like this is an honour." Kristen said gently.

"And what if I don't want to be honoured?" Lucas asked.

"Lucas, we've told them you will be part of the group representing seaQuest. You could contact them and tell them that you won't be able to attend, but it wouldn't look very good for seaQuest."

"Can't I go, and not give the lectures?"

The Captain shook his head.

"Think of the opportunity this gives you to show off, Lucas," Kristen said, trying to appeal to Lucas's ego, "and think of all the funding you could get for the projects we're working on."

Lucas seemed to withdraw into himself. "Fine – I'll go, I'll make the speeches." He said moodily, and he got up, starting to make his way to the door.

"Lucas?" The Captain asked, worried about the sudden change in the teen's mood.

"If you excuse me, Captain, I'm going to go and pack." Lucas replied without turning around.

The Captain and Kristen Westphalen looked at each other confused.

***** ***** *****

"Lucas, you in there?" Ben called when no one answered his knock on the hatch to Mammal Engineering.

"Go away Ben, I'm busy." Ben walked in anyway. Lucas was lying on his bed staring at the pattern the aqua tube projected onto to ceiling. He didn't look busy.

"So, buddy, you looking forward to the trip?"

"No."

"Aw, come on, it'll be fun." Lucas looked sceptical.

"Just six of us, it'll be just like shore leave." If anything Lucas withdrew into himself even more.

"You know who else is going?" The teen asked quietly.

"Nope, we'll have to wait and see – no one tells me anything." Ben replied, cheerful as ever. He didn't understand why his young friend wasn't looking forward to this conference as much as he was.

"Cheer up, think of all the trouble we can cause." Ben hinted mischievously.

Lucas looked up, his curiosity piqued. 

"What kind of trouble?"

"Well, I thought we could...." Ben started, smiling, relieved to see Lucas returning to something like his usual self.

***** ***** *****

The next morning Lucas went to the moon pool to say goodbye to Darwin.

"Lucas play?" the vo-corder translated as Darwin popped to the surface.

"Sorry, fish-face, I have to go away for a little while."

"Why Lucas go?"

"It's complicated." Darwin seemed to nod in agreement – most things to do with humans seemed to be complicated.

"Lucas come back?" Darwin asked.

"Yes-" Lucas stopped. "Well, probably." He corrected, he didn't want to end up lying to Darwin.

"Darwin hope Lucas come back."

"Lucas hopes Lucas comes back too." Lucas said quietly, before saying with suspiciously false cheer, "You be good when I'm gone. I'll make sure someone come to play with you, Ok?"

Darwin nodded again.

"Bye, Fish-Face." Lucas said, and left quickly, to get to the transport on time.

***** ***** *****

"You're late, Lucas." The Captain gently scolded, when Lucas had mad his way onto the dock. Lucas watched his breath condense in the cold air.

"Sorry, um, I guess everyone else is already here?" He said, glad the Captain had warned him to wear warm clothes.

"No" Dr. Westphalen answered dryly. "Krieg still hasn't made an appearance either." 

"Why did they have to put the whole conference in the middle of nowhere?" Lucas complained. Wrapping his arms around him to keep out the cold.

"It not the middle of nowhere," Kristen Westphalen corrected. "Noril'sk has one of the most sophisticated research centres in the world."

"It's in Siberia – Siberia – as in the arctic-circle, and the centre is run by the military, not by scientists." Lucas pointed out, before deciding to change the subject. "So who else is going to the conference?"

"You and Lieutenant Krieg, obviously, then there's Commander Ford, Commander Hitchcock, O'Neil and Ortiz – they're all storing their kit in the transports."

"Neither of you are going?" Lucas asked surprised.

"What, don't you think we trust you to go on your own, kiddo?" The Captain laughed and ruffled the teen's hair.

"What? On my own with most of the bridge crew you mean?"

"Well, we have to send the best to the conference, don't we?" The Captain said, smiling when Lucas blushed slightly. He didn't add that the Commanders were the only people he trusted to keep the rest of them out of trouble.

Lucas just hoped that the Captain wouldn't be disappointed in him.

Everyone looked around as Ben hurried towards them, skidding despite the grit on the floor.

"Hi, sorry I'm late Captain." The Captain nodded, wondering what Ben had been up to, it never even crossed his mind that there was an innocent explanation for the Lieutenant being late – with Krieg there never was.

"Do I have to warn you two to behave for Commander Ford?" Bridger asked solemnly.

Both Lucas and Ben gave the Captain such innocent looks he almost laughed out loud. Ford was going to have his hands full on this trip, and Bridger was glad that it was going to be the Commanders problem and not his.

When they had said their good byes, and both the Captain and Kristen had warned Ben to behave and wished Lucas good luck with his lectures, Lucas and Krieg made their way towards the transports. 

"Nice of you both to decide to join us, Lieutenant, Lucas." Ford said, nodding at each of them in turn.

Lucas and Ben looked at each other, disappointed that they may have to behave properly, at least for the first part of the trip, at least for long enough to lull Ford and Katie into a false sense of security.

Ben made to follow Lucas into the second transport, but Ford stopped him.

"I'm not that stupid, Krieg, you go in the other transport, I'm not making it that easy for you two to plan something."

"But Commander-"

"Lieutenant." Ford warned.

Krieg didn't protest anymore, but made his way towards the first transport and took a seat in the front, next to his ex-wife.

"Ford's letting you drive? No wonder he's in the other transport!" Krieg said, horrified.

"I only get to drive as far as the airport, he vetoed my request to fly the plane." Katie said, smiling mischievously at Ben.

"Funny Katie, very funny, just because I don't like flying."

"You don't like flying?" Miguel asked from the back seat.

"What's to like? You're up thousands of feet in the air, with nothing between you and the ground? Do you know how many things can go wrong with a plane mid-flight?"

"Thanks, but I think I'm happier not knowing." Miguel replied, he saw Katie prepare to start the engine, and he checked his seat belt – he'd heard stories about Katie's driving. She was a talented pilot, there was no questioning that, but she did most of her driving under water, and sometimes forgot that driving on land was not quite the same thing.

***** ***** *****

Lucas sat in the back of the other transport, and stared at the back of Ford and O'Neil's heads. 

"How long before we get to this place, anyway?"

"A few hours to the airport, then we fly to Khanty-Mansi airport, and transfer to a smaller plane, to fly to Noril'sk." Ford replied, tripping slightly over the of the place names.

Lucas and Tim both corrected his pronunciation at the same time. Tim looked back at Lucas in askance.

"My great grand-mother was Russian." Lucas said as if that explained everything.

"You speak Russian?" Ford queried.

"Not much, probably enough to get by, but that's about it."

"Maybe you'll get the chance to use some at the airport." Tim said. 

Lucas wasn't sure, but Ford didn't look too happy about flying, it wasn't anything that he could put his finger on, but it might have had something to do with the way the Commander gripped the steering wheel just a little bit tighter when ever some one mentioned flying.

When the first transport set off, Commander Ford carefully manoeuvred their transport into its tracks. 

O'Neil watched the transport that Katie drove; speed up in spite of the snow which covered the road. Swallowing, and muttering a quick prayer, and just hoped they'd all make it to the airport in one piece.

To be Continued...

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Any and all reviews and comments would be appreciated. This is going to be going somewhere, honest ;o)


	2. Chapter 2

Hi thanks to Becci, K. Presson, Theresa, Jules, Christine, Sara, Kiddo, Lucy, Denise Patterson, Sash, Diena Taylor, Pearlrosess, Shadow, Kas, Dani, Kathy, Karren, - and any one else who read and/or reviewed.  
  
See Chapter 1 for all - purpose disclaimer. Plus, I have never been to Russia, so sorry for any details I get wrong (unless they can be put down to a way things could be by 2018 - in that case, I intended it to be that all the time), also, no offence is intended to any one who may live in the places I've mentioned.  
  
Chapter 2.  
  
Ben Krieg closed his eyes as he felt the snow chains skid on the black ice. He heard Miguel utter something, which sounded very descriptive, in Spanish. Ben peeped out of one eye at Katie. She seemed perfectly calm, and was humming along to the old Abba song on the radio.  
  
"Commander," a small voice came from the back. "Can we slow down? Just a little bit? Please?"  
  
"Don't worry so much Ortiz. I'm a good driver - I've never so much as got a speeding ticket."  
  
"Only because the traffic cops can't catch up to write you one." Ben muttered - but not too loudly since he knew from experience that Katie would only put her foot down harder if she heard him.  
  
"I don't doubt your abilities as a driver, Commander, but the driving conditions are pretty hazardous." Miguel tried again.  
  
Again Katie reassured Miguel that she knew what she was doing. Finally Ben, very carefully released his death grip on the dash board, and turned, making a great show of looking over his shoulder at Fords transport which was trailing slightly behind.  
  
"Katie, I think you should slow down, not because you're a bad driver," he explained hastily, "but I think Ford is having trouble keeping up, he obviously not as skilled as you are in these conditions."  
  
Katie Hitchcock didn't look happy, but slowed down enough that Miguel and Ben both felt able to breath normally again.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Everyone in the second transport let out a sigh of relief when they saw Katie's transport slow to some thing approaching a sensible pace.  
  
Silence descended upon them.  
  
Ford felt out of his depth. He didn't know either of his companions that well, and didn't expect to have a lot in common with either of them, but the silence was getting to him. He cast his mind around for a suitable topic.  
  
"So, are you looking forward to giving your lectures, Lucas?"  
  
"No."  
  
Ford looked at Tim wondering if he'd said something wrong, but Tim looked as confused as he felt.  
  
"How come?" Tim asked, after a moment's silence.  
  
"I just don't like giving lectures, why the third degree all of a sudden?"  
  
Ford put Lucas's reaction down to teenage mood swings, but Tim wondered if there was more to it than that. Either way, before they could say anything else, Lucas pulled his earphones out of his backpack and put them on - turning the volume on the MP3 player they were connected to up to full.  
  
Then he pulled a bundle of notes out of the same bag, and started to look through them - pointedly ignoring the two officers in the front of the transport.  
  
Ford sighed - it was going to be a long trip.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Ben, sit down." Katie said, after getting dizzy watching him walk back and forth in front of her for the last half an hour.  
  
Ben continued to pace nervously up and down in the dilapidated airport terminal. The pale green paint on the walls was peeling, and they'd been told that they'd have to check with the information desk frequently since the electronic message boards hadn't worked in the last three years.  
  
"There's a problem with the plane, I know it." Ben replied.  
  
"Ben, there's no problem with the plane, it's just a little delay, that's all." Katie said, again.  
  
"Look at this place - it's falling apart!"  
  
"Ben, it's no worse than most of the smaller airports back home, all the smaller airports made cut backs after the new legislation came in, but that doesn't mean they're not safe."  
  
"I'm telling you, there's a problem with the plane, they're probably sticking it together with gaffer tape as we speak." Ben said, pacing more rapidly.  
  
"Calm, down, Ben. There's no need to panic."  
  
"Who's panicking? Why do you think I'm panicking? I'm not panicking!" Ben said, all in one breath.  
  
"Relax, Ben. It's perfectly safe. Millions of people fly every day, and none of them come to any harm." Miguel tried to reason.  
  
Katie sighed, next time, Commander Ford could stay with Krieg, and she would go and find out what the delay was all about.  
  
"Ok, all sorted." Ford said with forced cheer, as he and Tim returned. Ford looked around the group. Ben couldn't stop pacing, and it was beginning to look like they would have to sedate him just to get him on the plane. At least Miguel looked reasonably calm - although he was still a little off colour after sampling Katie's driving skills.  
  
Tim on the other hand was almost hopping up and down with excitment, after getting the chance to test his skills in no less than three different Russian dialects already. Katie looked ready to strangle Ben, but that was normal enough. Lucas meanwhile still hadn't taken his earphones off, and was still going through his bundle of papers.  
  
In short, Ford considered, we're not going to be the most perfect ambassadors the UEO has ever sent to the conference.  
  
"The plane is being re-fuelled, we'll be boarding in a few minutes."  
  
"Back or front?" Ben asked.  
  
"Pardon, Lieutenant?" Ford said, not following.  
  
"Are our seats near the back or the front of the plane?"  
  
"I don't know, why?" Ford asked warily, not being completely convinced that Ben's fear wasn't a con, and that the Lieutenant wasn't planning some kind of grand scale practical joke.  
  
"The back of the plane is safer."  
  
Ford raised his eyebrows in query. "That's because the plane doesn't often reverse into mountains, right?"  
  
Ben looked confused for a moment. "If the plane crashes, most of the passengers who survive are usually seated near the tail, because the tail often breaks away from the rest of the plane." He explained carefully.  
  
"It's not a joke, Commander," Katie supplied wearily, "When we went on our honeymoon, he said the same thing then, we had to take a later flight so we could sit near the tail - he won't board her if he has to sit in the front."  
  
"So where are we sitting?" Ben asked again.  
  
Ford sighed, "I'll go and check." He signalled for Tim O'Neil to go with him, to translate.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"What did she say?" Ford asked, wishing he'd opted for Russian, instead of French at school.  
  
"She says we're sitting near the front."  
  
"Can she move us?" Ford asked, and Tim translated to the woman behind the desk.  
  
The woman said something in Russian, and shook her head.  
  
"She says no-"  
  
"Thank you, Lieutenant, I understood that bit."  
  
Disappointed, they made their way back to the others. They tried to explain to Ben, but the supply officer was just getting more and more wound up.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Lucas sat in the terminal, a little bit apart from his friends, and listened to his music. He stared down at the notes he was working on and tapped his pen in rhythm to the beat. When he heard shouting he took his earphones off, and stared at the scene in front of him.  
  
Ben seemed to be having some kind of panic attack, and was shouting something about reversing into mountains. Every one else was trying to calm him down, but failing miserably. Ben backed away from Ford, stepped on Miguel's foot, tried to regain his balance by grabbing hold of Tim, but in the end only succeeded in causing them to all land in a twisted pile of arms and legs on the tiled floor.  
  
Ford had his eyes closed, and was obviously trying to block out the sound of laughter arising from the other passengers who were all watching the foreigners with amused interest. Once he had regained enough composure to open his eyes, Ford started trying to untangle the three men, and get them all back on their feet.  
  
Katie stood a few feet away, and tried not to laugh, believing, quite accurately, that it would prove to be the final straw for Commander Ford if she did. Lucas approached cautiously, and asked her what was going on. She quickly explained the gist of the problem, before going over to help the untangling process.  
  
Lucas watched for a moment, deep in though, not about the problem - he could see the solution to that already. What Lucas was trying to work out, was why none of the other crew had come up with the same solution before.  
  
Finally they were all on their feet; no worse for wear, well, except Ben, who'd managed to collect a black eye from Tim's flailing elbow during the fall.  
  
That was then that Ford looked around and noticed that Lucas had disappeared.  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
That's all for now - any and all reviews or comments you feel inclined to give will all be gratefully received :o) Next chapter should be up in the near future.  
  
Thanks again to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1 :o)  
  
Cadi. 


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to FishFace12, Teresa, K. Presson, Christine, Jules, Kiddo, Diena Taylor, Sash, Mena, Kas, Silver wolf, Sara, Frankie, Karen, and any one else who read and reviewed Chapter two :o)  
  
Please see previous chapters for disclaimers.  
  
Chapter Three.  
  
The Captain's going to kill me - that was Fords first thought when Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Ok, calm down, he told himself, we just have to find him, it's not that big an airport, it can't be that difficult.  
  
The Captain never needs to know, or the Doctor. Especially not the Doctor, Ford had lost enough arguments with the good Doctor Westphalen, to want to avoid any future confrontations.  
  
Lucas was a sensible child; he wouldn't get himself into any serious trouble. All they had to do was find Lucas and everything would be all right. Ford knew that there was no way any of them were going to go back to seaQuest without the teenager - that was more than their lives were worth.  
  
Spreading out they searched the airport, all looking foe a flash of blonde hair in the crowd.  
  
Not much later, Katie was on her way towards being really worried; Lucas was nowhere to be found. It was then that she saw two legs sticking out from beneath one of the check in desks. One of the feet was tapping in time to the sound of a rock song, which was also emanating from beneath the desk.  
  
Katie marched over to the desk, and prodded one of the legs with the toe of her shoe. Lucas sat up quickly, smacking his head into the underside of the desk. Slowly he shuffled out.  
  
"Lucas Wolenczak! What are you doing? You've had us all worried half to death!"  
  
As he emerged rubbing the bump on his head, Lucas pushed his earphones off with the other hand. He looked up at Katie, and knew he was in line for a long lecture.  
  
"How about, you tell the others that you've found me, and I'll explain everything when you get back?" Lucas suggested, before disappearing again.  
  
Katie opened and closed her mouth - doing quite a good impression of a goldfish. She thought about pulling him back out, and demanding an explanation then and there, but she didn't. Lucas was notoriously difficult to interrupt when he was working on something - he seemed to go into a different world, and it was impossible to get any sense out of him until he was finished.  
  
Commander Hitchcock rounded up the other members of the seaQuest group, and a few minutes later, they were all standing around Lucas's feet, waiting for an explanation.  
  
"What's he doing?" Ben asked, trying to look under the desk while nursing his wounded eye. He could see the wires, and the computer components, that were part of the electronic infrastructure of the airport - and which connected the computer on the desk to the rest of the technology in the building, but didn't have a clue as to what any of it actually did.  
  
Ford tapped his foot impatiently, wondering what he had done to annoy the Captain so badly, that Bridger had seen fit to send him on this trip, not a day into the journey, and already Commander Ford couldn't wait to get back to the boat.  
  
Tim was worried, the neither of the Commanders looked happy, and unhappy superior officers always made him nervous. It was probably because he was so nervous that he jumped so high when the electronic messages boards on the wall behind him sprung to life and announced the next flight.  
  
Ben and Miguel exchanged confused looks, before firing off questions at Lucas as he once more made his way out form under the desk. Before Lucas had a chance to answer one of the men who worked in the airport made his way over towards them.  
  
The man rattled off a long string of Russian, that only Tim was able to follow. Everyone else looked at him in askance.  
  
Tim cleared his throat. "Mr. Thomasevski says we can sit in the back of the plane."  
  
Ford looked from Ben to Lucas to the man, and back to Tim again. "Why did they change their mind?"  
  
Tim cleared his throat again, nervously. "Mr. Thomasevski says that Lucas made a deal with him, if Lucas could get the message boards - the ones that tell passengers when their plane is due to leave - to work again, then he'd rearrange the passengers on our flight so we can all sit near the tail."  
  
"Tell Mr. Thomasefss... efs..." Lucas and Tim both managed to restrain them selves from correcting the Commanders pronunciation, "Please, tell him that we appreciate the trouble he's gone to, and thank him for making the changes."  
  
Tim repeated what Ford said, although with significantly better pronunciation of Mr. Tomasevski's name.  
  
After Mr. Thomasevski had left them they all stood and stared at Lucas.  
  
"Um..." Lucas shuffled his feet. "Sorry I didn't tell you where I was going. But, it would have taken a long time to explain, and the flights leaving soon." He indicated the message board that was showing their flight was due to leave in a less than five minutes time.  
  
"We'll take about this on the plane." Ford said to Lucas ominously, as he shepherded them all in the right direction.  
  
"Yes, Commander." Lucas sighed. But at least now his best friend didn't look like he would need to be sedated, not that he looked happy about flying anyway, but he was at least calmer now, so Lucas figured it was worth a lecture, or maybe two lectures judging by the look on Commander Hitchcock's face.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
A little while into the flight Katie sat in the cramped airplane seat and wondered how she had ended up sitting next to Krieg. Her ex-husband was already wriggling in his seat - unable to sit still for more than a few moments at the best of times.  
  
Lucas was on the other side of Ben, next to the window, and coincidently not within lecture distance of Commander Ford - who was sitting behind Katie, and Katie herself would have had to lecture across Krieg, so it looked like Lucas had been granted a temporary reprieve.  
  
Lucas had already pulled his notes back out of his backpack, which he had brought on as hand luggage, and he was quickly starting to read though them again, make small notes in the margins - Lucas wanted everything to be perfect when he finally presented it.  
  
"What you doing Lucas?" Ben said trying to peer over the teens shoulder.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
Ben waited for a beat to see if any more information was forth coming.  
  
"Do you want to practice your lectures on us?" Ben tried again.  
  
"No."  
  
"Are you Ok, Lucas?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Nothing worrying you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Your sure?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Can you answer in more than half a dozen words?"  
  
Lucas looked at his friend, counting the words on his fingers as he spoke. "I. Am. Busy. Stop. Asking. Me. Questions." He held up his fingers, "Seven words."  
  
Ben sighed and left Lucas to his notes, he turned around to annoy Katie instead.  
  
Katie turned in her seat to see Ben, who for once was sitting quite still, staring at her.  
  
"Ben." She said the warning evident in her tone of voice.  
  
"What? I'm just sitting here."  
  
"You're planning something." Katie corrected.  
  
"What makes you think that?" Ben said, pretending to be hurt.  
  
Katie ignored his false show of emotion. "Because planning something is your default state of existence, it's what you do, it's who you are." Katie turned pointedly away from Krieg and settled herself to pretend to sleep - figuring that was the only way to get any peace.  
  
In the three seats behind them, Tim was happily reading a Russian language text book, Miguel was already fast asleep - since young enlisted man had always found airplane rides very relaxing, while Ford was sitting ridged in his seat, trying not to let anyone know how mush he disliked flying. It wasn't so bad in this plane, but Ford was not looking forward to transferring to the smaller plane at the next stop over.  
  
All he hoped was that the rest of the journey was going to be less eventful than the start - that hope was lost when the Captain made an announcement.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To be continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Yep, I know this one's a bit shorter, but the next chapter should be up relatively soon. Please review - Any comments you decide to make will always be appreciated :o) 


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you to Jules6, treachery89, K. Presson, KatKnits00, Sara, Kiddo, Frankie2, Christine, Teresa, Sash3, Lucy28, Dani, Karen, and anyone else who read and / or reviewed.  
  
I know it's taking a while, but I will get to Lucas's past eventually. This is all happening for a reason, I promise :o)  
  
Chapter 4.  
  
"We're going to crash!" Ben said, almost calmly at first, but then with increasing alarm.  
  
"Ben, we're not going to crash." Katie insisted.  
  
"Didn't you here what the pilot said, Katie. We're going to crash!"  
  
"Of course I didn't hear what the pilot said, I doubt anyone else did either, all we could hear was you yelling that we're going to crash at the top of your lungs." Katie said with obvious annoyance.  
  
"The pilot said we're going to crash." Ben insisted.  
  
"Ben, it's only a bit of turbulence, we're not going to crash." Lucas looked up from his work and tried to reassure his friend.  
  
"Tim, where's Tim, I have to speak to Tim." Ben started looking around as if he expected the young Lieutenant to appear out of thin air in front of him.  
  
"He's sitting behind us, Ben. You can speak to him when we get off the plane."  
  
"I have to speak to him now!" Ben wailed in protest.  
  
"Ben, you're making a fool of yourself, sit down!" Katie snapped when Ben started to get out of his seat and try to push past her.  
  
"Not until I speak to Tim."  
  
Tim O'Neil looked up from his book, to see Ben, manoeuvre him self past Commander Hitchcock and loom over Ford.  
  
Ignoring both of the Commanders, Ben leaned over and said "Tim, I need to talk to you. I have to convert."  
  
Ford looked from Ben to Tim and back again.  
  
"You want to what?"  
  
"I want to convert."  
  
"On an aeroplane?" Ford asked confused, and not for the first time that day.  
  
"I don't want to die an atheist."  
  
"Krieg this is no time for jokes." Ford hissed through clenched teeth, aware of the strange looks his group were receiving off the other passengers.  
  
"It's not a joke, I want to convert." Ben stated, more loudly this time.  
  
Katie knelt on her seat and looked over at the scene progressing in the seat behind her.  
  
"He's not joking." She sighed, "He gets religious every time he thinks he's going to die."  
  
Ford just stared at Ben as if the supply officer had grown an extra couple of heads. After a few moments, he gave in and switched seats with Ben so that Ben could sit next to Tim. While Tim himself looked decidedly unsure about what was going on.  
  
Next to Tim, Miguel slept soundly, not the least bit concerned that he hadn't woken up to see Ben's hysterics.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Some time later Tim braced himself against the sway of the plane as it hit yet another pocket of turbulence and said "Ben, believing you are about to die, is not a good enough reason to want to convert from Atheism to Catholicism, you have to believe in the religion as well."  
  
"But if I convert I can go to heaven, right?"  
  
"It doesn't work like that!" Tim protested, although he secretly thought that it would take a heck of a transformation to get Ben past the Pearly gates.  
  
"Yes, but..." and so Ben continued with his theories on converting his way into heaven.  
  
***** ***** ******  
  
When Ben had exchanged seats with Ford, Lucas quickly started to pretend to look through his notes again, hoping that Ford would wait a while longer before beginning the lecture. After about five minutes, he risked a glance at the Commander, wondering why the lecture hadn't already started.  
  
Commander Ford was staring straight ahead; his hands' griping tightly onto the arm rests which fell between the seats. Lucas silently debated whether or not he should speak to Ford, on the one hand there was obviously something wrong with the Commander and Katie Hitchcock was evidently to busy eves dropping into her ex-husbands conversation to notice that fact. On the other hand, speaking up might start off the very lecture he was trying so hard to avoid.  
  
After a few more moments of debate, Lucas tapped the Commander on the arm. "Are you Ok Commander?"  
  
Ford nodded jerkily but didn't speak.  
  
Lucas stared at him for a moment, "You don't like flying do you?"  
  
"I am not afraid of flying. I just feel a little bit..." Ford said.  
  
"Do you know what I do when the turbulence bothers me?" Lucas asked.  
  
Ford shook his head.  
  
"I'll show you. Close your eyes."  
  
"I am not afraid of flying." Ford repeated.  
  
"I know that, but just humour me, Commander." Lucas said.  
  
Ford hesitated, but closed his eyes.  
  
"Ok, imagine you're on seaQuest." Lucas paused for a moment, "You're on the bridge. Can you see the bridge?"  
  
Ford nodded.  
  
"Which shift is on duty?" Lucas asked.  
  
"Second shift." Ford said.  
  
"Good. Can you see Tim and Miguel at their stations?" Ford nodded. "And Commander Hitchcock?" Again Ford nodded.  
  
"Ok, look at the sensors - there's a storm above us, and we've had to rise almost to the surface, so there is a bit of roll, but not too much, certainly nothing to worry about."  
  
Again the plane hit a pocket of turbulence.  
  
"Can you feel the boat sway with the force of the storm?"  
  
"Yes, I can feel it."  
  
"Good, so what do we do now?"  
  
"We should submerge, and ride the storm out lower down the water column."  
  
"Engineering says we can't submerge, there's something wrong with the ballast tanks and we can't take on any more ballast."  
  
"Ok, first we send someone from engineering to sort the problem with ballast, and then we'll check all other bridge stations to make sure it's an isolated problem."  
  
Slowly, as their conversation progressed, Ford began to release his death grip on the arms of his seat, and speak more naturally. The next time he opened his eyes the plane was making a safe landing at Khanty-Mansi airport.  
  
Only then did Ford realise that he had been so busy trying to get seaQuest's ballast tanks working, he had forgotten how air sick he had felt. In a way he supposed it made sense, Ford had never in his life felt sea sick, so of course he'd felt much better imagining the turbulence was caused by the swelling of the waves rather than by air pockets.  
  
What the Commander was much less comfortable with, was the fact that he had needed a teenagers help to come up with the solution. Ford didn't like relying on other people at the beat of times, and felt even less comfortable in need the help of someone who was not only so much younger than himself, but who wasn't even military.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Miguel Ortiz woke up when he felt someone poking him repeatedly in the ribs. He yawned and stretched. Opening his eyes to see most of the seaQuest delegation to the conference looking down at him.  
  
"What did I do?" He asked, nervously.  
  
"How did you manage to sleep through all that turbulence?" Ford asked suspiciously.  
  
"I like flying, it's relaxing." Miguel said.  
  
"You didn't even wake up when Krieg started shouting?" Katie asked.  
  
"Or when he tried to convert?" Tim asked.  
  
"Um, no... You converted?" Miguel asked Ben.  
  
"No." Ben answered sullenly "Tim wouldn't let me. He says I can't be Catholic just because I don't believe in God all the time."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Half an hour later they all stood on the edge of a small runway with their baggage and viewed their next mode of transportation. It was a small plane, old, but it looked in quite good repair.  
  
They all seemed reasonably confident about boarding the plane for the next leg of their journey. But, on the other hand, that was before the pilot arrived and handed each of them a parachute.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To be continued...  
  
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That's all for now, if you have any comments to make, please review, any and all comments you are inclined to make are always very welcome. I know the chapters are not very long, but I try to post little and often rather than posting nothing at all for weeks on end. Thanks again to all those who reviewed the last chapter. Next one will hopefully be up reasonably soon :o) 


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks to Sugar Sugar, Diena, ScullyMulder4ev, Christine, Sash3, Sara, K. Presson, Teresa, Frankie2, Kiddo, Sonneta, Karen, and anyone else who read and / or reviewed the previous chapter.  
  
Please see previous chapters for all-purpose disclaimers. Also, please assume my lack of knowledge regarding submarines is mirrored by my lack of knowledge regarding aeroplanes.  
  
Chapter 5.  
  
"Parachutes?"  
  
"Ben calm down." Katie warned softly.  
  
"He wants us to wear parachutes?"  
  
"It's standard safety procedure, since the new legislature came into effect everyone on a small plane has to wear one." Ford chipped it.  
  
"But..." Ben began.  
  
"No buts," The Commander said quickly. "Put the parachute on, and get on the plane."  
  
Ben seemed to consider objecting, but Commander Ford didn't look like he was in the mood to be argued with, so he decided to go and pester Tim instead.  
  
Ford sighed in relief, Ben looked as if he was going to behave - for at least a few minutes anyway.  
  
Five minutes later Ford checked his parachute fastening for the eleventh time.  
  
"Diving apparatus."  
  
Ford spun around, and saw Lucas standing behind him.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Diving apparatus, everyone going on a launch has to wear it, the UEO has introduced it as standard safety procedure."  
  
"But that make no sense - the chances of you needing diving apparatus in a launch are thousands to one..."  
  
"Yep, but the brass don't understand things like that do they?" Lucas pointed out.  
  
Ford smiled, realising what the teenager was trying to do.  
  
"Lucas about the flight... I just wanted to say... I mean... You... um... I..."  
  
"You're welcome Commander." Lucas said with a wry smile and he went off to check his luggage before it was stored aboard the plane.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"You can't put them in the hold, I have to take them on board with me." Lucas insisted when one of the men loading the plane tried to put his three bags in the hold at the back of the plane.  
  
The man rattled off a long string of Russian, but Lucas stubbornly shook his head and refused to let go of the bags.  
  
Katie Hitchcock made her way over to see what the problem was. She finally managed to make a compromise that Lucas should be allowed to take the smallest of the bags on with him, but the other two, including the one containing his lap top, would have to go into the hold.  
  
Lucas wasn't happy about this state of affairs, but relented in the end, since he had the most important of the bags with him, he would have to be content with that.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
A few hours later, they were all in the air and half way to their destination. Miguel was somehow managing to doze quite comfortably in spite of fact that Ben was sitting next to him and reciting the prayers - the ones that Tim had grudgingly agreed to teach him, interspersed with hail Mary's. The number of hail Mary's increased dramatically every time the plane so much as swayed.  
  
Ford had his eyes closed, and was trying to steer one of seaQuest's launches through the Mid-Atlantic Ocean. Katie and Tim were talking quietly regarding their expectations of the conference.  
  
Lucas was trying to decide whether it was going to be worth sulking about the storage arrangements, or if, as he suspected, no one would notice if he did. They'd probably put it down to teenage mood swings anyway, so he decided not to bother. He absent mindedly tightened his grip on his hand luggage as the plane rocked.  
  
Unfortunately the weather had not improved dramatically since their last flight. The pilot was trying to fly around the worse of the weather, probably due in no small part to his opinions regarding Ben's mental state and the adverse effect any problems would cause to it.  
  
Lucas looked out of the window and pictured the densely forested land whizzing past - it was more interesting than watching quite non-descript white... maybe fog or maybe cloud, Lucas wasn't sure anymore. He was feeling a bit turned around since the view hadn't changed at all for over an hour.  
  
Katie tapped Lucas on the shoulder, and asked him to come into the cockpit.  
  
"Why is something wrong? Are we going to crash?" ben said when he over heard Katie.  
  
"No, Ben, calm down. I just thought Lucas would like to see the cockpit, I can remember visiting the pilot when I was a little kid, so I thought Lucas would like to do the same."  
  
Lucas was about to protest at being called a little kid, but stopped himself when he saw the strain around Katie Hitchcock's eyes.  
  
"Um... Yea, sure." Lucas muttered embarrassed, but still getting up from his seat, and securing his bag carefully before he followed her.  
  
When they got out of range for the others to hear them, Katie whispered her apologies to Lucas.  
  
"... I just couldn't think of another excuse which wouldn't worry anyone."  
  
Lucas nodded in reply, not trusting that she would hear anything he said over his drumming heartbeat.  
  
"It's nothing serious, the plane is fine, but the pilot's radio isn't working and we can't get in touch with the ground. I thought you might be able to shed some light on the problem." Katie continued.  
  
Lucas examined the radio unit carefully.  
  
"Well, is it fixable?" Katie asked.  
  
"Yes... and there again no." Lucas answered helpfully.  
  
Katie gave him a pointed look.  
  
"Yes it's fixable, but not without some specialist equipment. I can't get it working in the air, although it would be a simple enough job an the ground."  
  
Katie couldn't hide her disappointment. "We can't tell the others about this, it will only panic them. Will you promise not to tell them?"  
  
Lucas promised.  
  
"Sorry." Lucas added quietly. What was the good of being a genius if you couldn't even fix a simple radio, he thought. "How much of a problem is the radio going to be?" He added, pushing his own thoughts to the back of his mind.  
  
"Not a major problem, it's just that the pilot can't tell anyone on the ground that we're going to have to divert away from our planned route because of the weather. It's not a problem unless we crash or something." Katie tried to joke.  
  
The joke fell flat when they heard one of the engines stutter.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Fords eyes snapped open when the plane jerked violently to one side. It took him a moment to change his field of concentration from the Atlantic to the aeroplane. In that time the plane jerked again, and he heard the engine stutter repeatedly, and then cut out all together.  
  
For a few seconds, they all froze. No one spoke a sound or moved a muscle, not until Katie and Lucas rushed out from the cockpit.  
  
"We're going down, we have to jump." Katie shouted.  
  
"We can't just jump!" Someone yelled, but no one remembered whom.  
  
"Just remember the instructions the pilot gave you when we boarded." Katie yelled back.  
  
"We'll die out there!" Ford said.  
  
"We'll die in here unless we jump." Katie said, heading for the door that the pilot had indicated earlier. Almost as an after thought Katie added "Commander."  
  
Ford's command training kicked in, and, just as if he really were on seaQuest, he took control of the situation.  
  
"O'Neil, grab the first aid bag, Ortiz, get the survival kits," He shouted, instinctively recalling all that the pilot had said. In any case the proto- calls were similar to a sub in so many respects. Ford paused a second to make sure they were doing as he ordered. "Krieg, help Hitchcock with the door."  
  
Ben was too frightened to argue, and he followed Commander Ford's orders.  
  
As soon as the door was open, Ford made his way to one side of it. He knew Tim O'Neil had jumped before - Ford vaguely remembered something about the Lieutenant being involved a charity jump when he was in the Academy.  
  
He motioned for O'Neil to jump first, and Tim knew he was intended to be an example so he didn't even stop to think before he felt himself falling through the air. Next Miguel was at the door - he hesitated.  
  
"If O'Neil can do it, so can you." Ford shouted past the noise of the wind. And then Miguel too was falling.  
  
Ben too, was soon convinced to jump, although Krieg swore later that the Commander had pushed him out of the plane without giving him a chance to jump of his own accord.  
  
Ford looked around for the next jumper, but no one was there. He heard shouting from the cockpit and saw Katie and Lucas emerge.  
  
"The pilot won't leave." Katie shouted at him. "He's determined to go down with his plane."  
  
"Lucas, you have to jump." Katie told him, expecting a frightened argument.  
  
Lucas made his way towards the door, but then turned back, scrambling towards his seat as quickly as he could. Ignoring the Commander's calls he grabbed his bag from where it was secured. He made his way back to the door, holding the bag tight to his chest, and then seemingly more concerned about the bag than himself, he jumped.  
  
Katie, and then Ford followed him into the mist.  
  
Ford cast a long glance back at the cockpit, but didn't try to change the Captain's mind. It was possible that the Captain knew what he was doing, the man might survive the impact, although Ford wouldn't wager on his chances.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
It was impossible to tell which way was up. There was zero visibility, in the mists. Just as the pilot had instructed Lucas counted down until he estimated it was time to pull the cord. There was a quick jerk as the air opened the chute and then he felt his decent slow dramatically.  
  
It seemed not long after the parachute opened when Lucas saw the trees rushing up to meet him.  
  
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To Be Continued...  
  
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That's it for now, please tune in next week for the next exciting instalment of... ;o) And now back to reality, lol, if you have any comments which you feel inclined to share with me, then please review. Hope people are still enjoying the story. Shouldn't be too long until the next chapter is posted up - and, finally, we'll be hearing a bit about the past :o) 


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks to Diena, Swasthi, Christine, Teresa, WindyDay, Hwi-Noree, K. Presson, Kas, Ahn-Li Stefraini, Frankie2, Moonbeam's Predilections, Treachery89, Karen, and anyone else who read and reviewed the previous chapter.  
  
Please see previous chapters for all-purpose disclaimers.  
  
Chapter 6.  
  
Lucas felt the sting of the branches whipping against him as he crashed though the treetop. After what seemed like an age, Lucas felt a sharp tug as the parachute snagged and tangled in the branches above him.  
  
He took a deep breath.  
  
"Ok, try to stay calm." He told himself. Somehow hearing a voice, even if it was only his own, was comforting. "You're alive, that's a good start."  
  
Lucas carefully flexed his joints. "Nothing's broken. I'm Ok, I'm fine." He paused for a moment. "And I'm stuck in a tree." The ground was about 30 ft below him.  
  
"Can anyone hear me?" Lucas shouted. He waited for a reassuring reply from one of the crew. No one answered.  
  
Lucas sighed, and looked at the tree around him. There was a branch about eight feet away. After on considering for a few seconds, Lucas dropped the bag he'd kept such a tight hold on down onto the forest floor where it landed intact with a quiet thud. First gently and then with growing momentum he tried to swing towards the branch.  
  
Lucas tried to ignore the quiet, but some how all-pervading sound of tearing parachute, and he made one final lunge at the branch.  
  
He missed.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Tim lay on the rocks not far from the edge of the river and tried to remember how to breathe. It was not something he had ever had cause to really consider before, but it seemed to be a lot more difficult than it should be.  
  
He was also quite sure that his back shouldn't be burning like it was. From his left shoulder to his right hip there seemed to be a line of flesh that was on fire and every time he tried to move the blaze intensified.  
  
Tim could remember jumping out of the plane, and he could remember asking forgiveness for his sins as he raced through the air. And then there was a blur of river below him, and a frantic effort to manoeuvre the parachute in any direction that was away from the freezing waters.  
  
After that there was a rather undignified landing, on the rocks, and this pain in his back, the one that was making breathing so difficult. Tim wondered if the others were faring any better than he was, hopefully they were, because he was now quite sure he wasn't going to be able to rush and help them any time soon.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Spanish was a good language to curse in, and Miguel was making good use of that fact. His left arm hung painfully and uselessly at his side - meaning that his progress in search of the others was somewhat slower than he would have liked.  
  
Miguel cursed parachutes, and trees, and tree roots that deliberately tried to trip him up. He cursed conferences and the UEO. He cursed his shoulder that wouldn't stop throbbing. And finally he cursed him self, because he had no idea if he was travelling in the right direction.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Lucas sat up and said one word that summed up everything he was feeling. "Typical." It was said in the exact same tone Miguel was favouring at the moment.  
  
"That was very clever Lucas, true genius at it's best. You manage to jump out of a plane, no problem, and then you fall out of a stupid tree."  
  
He looked at his right arm. But even before he looked, Lucas had known it was broken. In the last decade, he had become quite good at self-diagnosis.  
  
Keeping his right arm curled protectively against his chest Lucas crawled over to his bag, he fumbled at the catch with his left hand, but finally managed to open it.  
  
It wasn't a bad fracture, not as bad as some that he'd had. Slowly and methodically Lucas removed a magazine from one of the pockets of the bag, and after a more careful search, Lucas found three the plastic ties, the kind that he usually used to attach labels to the electrical wires around seaQuest, in his pocket. He laid them next to the magazine and then refastened the catches on the bag. He double-checked each catch to make sure everything inside was still safe.  
  
Lucas took off his sweatshirt, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out when he brought the material over his left arm. Then, using the magazine as a make shift splint, he secured it around his injured arm with the plastic ties. After checking the splint was as correct as it was possible to get it with only one left hand, the teen tied the sweatshirt into a good approximation of a sling with practiced ease.  
  
Hoisting his bag onto his left shoulder, carefully, so as not to disturb the sling. Lucas set off to find the others; every so often he stopped to call out their names. But still no one answered.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Ben sat on the floor next to fallen tree and shivered. He tried to stand, but all the blood rushed, in one wave of giddiness, to his head. He felt dizzy and queasy, and couldn't quite believe that he'd managed to land in one piece. He'd jumped out of an aeroplane, and he was still in one piece. The worst had happened and he was still alive.  
  
He should feel wonderful, but he didn't, he felt terrible. Somehow it didn't seem fair that he'd jumped out of a plane, done everything right, which was obvious to Ben when he considered how hard he would have landed if he had done something wrong, and he still felt rotten.  
  
As soon as he stopped feeling giddy Ben decided he was going to find someone and he was going to complain.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Commander? Ben? Can anyone hear me?" Lucas paused to see if anyone could hear him, but, like every other time, no one answered his calls.  
  
He walked a little further on. On the edge of his hearing, Lucas thought he heard something. He stopped again to listen, but was about put the voice down to wishful thinking, but when it came again, there was do doubt.  
  
Lucas raced towards the voice scanning the trees ahead of him for any sign of a parachute. Finally he saw one, and not far away from it, Katie was lying still on the floor.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Commander Jonathan Ford, youngest Commander in the UEO, and the XO of seaQuest giggled. He didn't know why, but he giggled, and as soon as he started he found it very difficult to stop.  
  
His head ached, and it felt wet and sticky when he tried to rub the pain away. He giggled again and distractedly wiped the blood off his hand onto his uniform.  
  
Ford couldn't remember drinking, but it was starting to creep over him that he felt drunk. He could be court marshalled for drinking on duty. Straightening up and putting on his best 'I'm from the UEO - not mess with me' face he set off to find out why he was drunk in the middle of a forest.  
  
He was still giggling.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Katie, are you Ok?" Lucas called, rushing over to where she lay.  
  
"I'm fine, what about you? What happened to your arm?" Lucas looked confused for a moment, and then remembered his arm. He was so used to working with one arm, he had soon slipped back into his old habits of coping - which was to simply pretend that nothing was wrong.  
  
"What happened to your leg?" He countered.  
  
"My leg is fine. It's nothing you need to worry about-"  
  
"Believe it or not, I'm no longer a child. And anyway - I'm the only one hear at the moment, so you'll have to let me help you." Lucas snapped wearily, disappointed that she didn't trust him enough to help her.  
  
Katie only hesitated for a moment. "I caught it on a branch on the way down. I think it might be broken."  
  
Lucas looked form one leg to the other and back again. He didn't think it was broken, he knew it was broken. Katie's right leg was slightly shorter than her left and it was lying at an awkward angle to the rest of her body.  
  
Lucas thought for a moment, and then began to collect what he thought he would need to make another, this time more complicated splint.  
  
"What are you doing?" Katie asked as Lucas moved towards her parachute.  
  
"I need to immobilise your leg." Lucas said simply.  
  
"I didn't know you had first aid training." Katie said, as she watched him gather a small pile of what seemed to her to be miscellaneous odds-and- ends.  
  
"Only very unofficial training." Lucas hedged.  
  
"Who taught you?" Katie asked more because she wanted something to take her mind off her leg, than for any other reason.  
  
"I suppose you could say my father taught me everything I know about first aid." Lucas said with something in between a reassuring smile and a remembering grimace.  
  
Katie was going to ask more, but they heard someone singing. Who ever it was, they were singing very loudly and very off key.  
  
"Ben?" Lucas queried, casting a glance at Katie.  
  
"Miguel?" Katie wondered.  
  
As they wondered a figure swayed towards them from between the trees.  
  
They both stared at the figure with their jaws hanging open. Then they both said, with uncanny synchronisation.  
  
"Commander Ford?"  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Miguel was now quite convinced that he was lost. After wondering around for what felt like hours, he still hadn't found anyone. He'd tried shouting - in Spanish and English for whatever good that would do, but he was getting more and more sure he'd headed off in the wrong direction in the first place.  
  
He was hungry and thirsty and cold. He wasn't sure he could do anything about the first or the last, but he headed towards the sounds of running water to try to quench his thirst.  
  
He knelt at the side of the fast flowing water and tried to cup a mouthful of water in his good hand.  
  
He recognised the tinny smell of blood, before he saw the strands of red leaching into the water...  
  
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To Be Continued...  
  
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Hope people are still enjoying the story. Please review if you have any comments to make... actually you can review even if you don't have anything special to say, I just like getting reviews :o) Chapter 7 should be posted next Saturday. 


	7. Chapter 7

Many thanks to Jamie, K. Presson, Jules6, Christine, Teresa, Swasthi, Moonbeam's Predilections, two2feet, Sara, Frankie2, Treachery89 and anyone else who read and reviewed Chapter 6.  
  
Two2feet - not every plane crashes, the seaQuest crew managed to fly the first leg of their journey with nothing worse than a bit of turbulence... they were ok until they got into the second plane ;o)  
  
Frankie2 - Happy Birthday!  
  
This one is up a little bit earlier than planned, just for a change from the chapter being post later than planned - which is usually the case :o)  
  
Please see previous chapters for all-purpose disclaimers.  
  
Chapter 7.  
  
Blood.  
  
Miguel froze with his hand half way to his mouth. Blood was rarely a good sign. Slowly he let his eyes follow the red strands back to their source, scared of what he might find there.  
  
From where he was crouching the blood seemed to be coming from a large boulder, and you didn't have to be a geologist to know the popular proverb... Standing up Miguel moved further up stream to get a better look. The young enlisted man peered across the water and he saw the corner or a parachute poking out from behind one of the rocks.  
  
Not bothering to think about the temperature, nor the depth of the water, Miguel plunged in and tried to swim across to the other side. It's not easy to swim in a freezing cold river, especially if it's a fast flowing river... and your fully clothed... and your trying to drag a bag full of survival kits along after you... with your only good arm.  
  
Miguel kick furiously trying to keep his head above water, but no matter what he did his head kept slipping back beneath the surface.  
  
Everything seemed to slow down, the water turned into treacle and sucked him down. Miguel tried to scream, but mistimed his attempt and instead swallowed several mouthfuls of river water. It's strange the little things you notice when your about to die, and Miguel noticed how the cold water sent a spike of pain through his sensitive teeth.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Commander, why are you singing?" Katie asked, in that special tone of voice all officers' use to superior officers when they are not sure if said superior has going completely around the twist.  
  
"Bears." Ford stated emphatically.  
  
"Bears?" Lucas asked.  
  
"Yep - I saw it in a film - if you're in the woods then you have to sing, when you sing, bears hear the noise and they keep away from you. Very logical. It's a very good idea not to be attacked by bears. Should be standard military practice." Ford Looked from Lucas to Katie and back again. "Why aren't you two singing?"  
  
"Ford, are you feeling ok?" Katie asked hesitantly.  
  
"Not Ford."  
  
"You're not Ford?" Katie asked, trying to keep up with the conversation.  
  
"That's right?"  
  
"So who are you?" Lucas queried, dreading what kind of answer the Commander might come up with.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Miguel also noticed something, something far more important than his sensitive teeth, he realised that his last frantic kick had connected with something hard - something that felt suspiciously like solid ground. Throwing his body weight in what he hoped would be the right direction Miguel lunged and grappled for a riverbank.  
  
His hand slid off the first clump of weeds he clutched at. He pulled the second clump out by the roots, the third hand full of weed held long enough for Miguel to clamber on to the rocky riverside.  
  
As he pulled himself from he water, Miguel tried to look on the bright side - at least the old water had numbed his shoulder - it was no longer throbbing. In fact he had very little sensation at all in his shoulder... or his hands... or his arms. He could feel his teeth though, they were chattering together in rapid staccato.  
  
Collapsing on to the rocks, Miguel once more caught site of the parachute, and the blood. The blood was trickling down from behind one of the rocks towards the water and a shivering Miguel traced it back, bracing himself against what he might see there.  
  
When he convinced his feet to manoeuvre him around the rock Miguel saw Tim. He looked so peaceful lying there staring up at the sky, as if he didn't have a care in the world.  
  
Miguel felt the tears clog in his throat. Tim was his friend, his best friend aboard the seaQuest, and his best friend off seaQuest come to that.  
  
"Why did you have to die?" Miguel muttered. "Why?" Without conscious thought Miguel let himself slide to the floor next to Tim's unmoving body. Rested his head against Tim's chest Miguel let himself cry, he let himself cry for Tim, and for the others, because he felt sure that Tim would not be the only one who failed to survive this journey  
  
Miguel felt another shiver race though his bones, and couldn't help but think back to the 30min session of first aid training he'd been given before he came aboard seaQuest. He'd wished they'd included some useful information, information like, how long it takes to die from hypothermia.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"I'm not Ford. Why does everyone always call me Ford?"  
  
"That's your name." Katie said gently.  
  
"Makes me sound like some kinda old fashioned makea car..." Ford slurred to himself.  
  
"Commander, why don't you come and sit down over hear, by Commander Hitchcock..." Lucas said gently shepherding Ford over to where Katie was still lying.  
  
Katie seemed to be trying to look behind Fords back. Lucas smiled slightly.  
  
"He's not drunk Commander. He has concussion - it can look the same if your not used to it."  
  
"Concussion?" Katie said, before looking suitably guilty when she realised Lucas had seen her looking for a bottle.  
  
"Probably banged his head on the way down." Lucas suggested. Moving around to the other side of Ford. Lucas found the small cut on ford's head, there was a lot of blood, there always was with a head injury, Lucas's memory supplied.  
  
Tearing a strip of parachute Lucas handed the material to Ford and placed it, along with Ford's hand, on the cut.  
  
"Just keep pressure on it, and you'll be ok." Ford nodded, but didn't seem to be listening. "Ford?" Lucas asked.  
  
"I'm not Ford."  
  
"Well, who are you then?" Katie snapped, annoyed with herself for being confused, and annoyed with Ford too, because he was the one who was confusing her.  
  
"I'm Jonathan." Ford stated emphatically.  
  
Lucas raised his eyebrows. "Well... um, Jonathan... I need you to do me a favour."  
  
Ford looked at Lucas expectantly.  
  
"Katie hit her head when she landed, I need you to stay here with her, and make sure she doesn't go to sleep. Do you think you can do that?"  
  
Ford nodded happily, and when Lucas glanced over Fords head at Katie she nodded her understanding too.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Ben trudged along unhappily. He hadn't seen the same film as Ford, and so he wasn't singing to avoid bears. The giddiness had passed, and been replaced by an aching desperation to find the others.  
  
Someone - someone named Commander Jonathan Ford was going to pay for making him jump out of a plane.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"You're cold."  
  
At first he thought he was imagining it. But then the voice came again. "You're shivering."  
  
Miguel looked up into the sky guiltily. His grandmother had always told him that God spoke Spanish, but he had never believed her. Now he wondered if that was going to count against him. The voice of God didn't sound too omnipotent though, in fact it sounded just as scared as he felt. But who else would be speaking Spanish to him in the middle of Russia.  
  
He looked down at Tim's body, and cleared a six-foot leap from a sitting start when the body moved.  
  
Tim's eyes blinked open.  
  
"You're dead." Miguel said - a line that will never go down in history as one of the most encouraging things to hear when you've just regained consciousness.  
  
"No, I'm not." Tim rasped. "If I was dead there would be angels and things... and it wouldn't be so cold... and my back wouldn't hurt so much..." He added.  
  
"You're really alive?" Miguel asked suspiciously.  
  
"Trust me on this, I know weather I'm alive or not," Tim looked around. "Where are the others?"  
  
"I don't know, you're the only person I could find." Miguel explained. He turned away from Tim and brushed what he hoped were the last sign of his tears away from his face - crying in front of a corpse was one thing, crying in front of a real life person was something else entirely.  
  
Tim pretended not to notice, instead he told Miguel see if there was any chocolate in the survival kits.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Lucas walked a short distance away from the others and leaned wearily against the trunk of a convenient tree. No matter what he did all he could hear was Katie's scream. She'd tried not to yell out, but somehow that only made it worse. Of course Lucas knew that he leg had to be splinted properly, that if he hadn't straighten the leg now Katie wouldn't have thanked him when it had to be done later.  
  
He remembered the first time his leg had been broken. He knew from experience that the longer you left the break the more painful it was to adjust and splint later. The grating sound his leg had made when he'd finally built up the courage to straighten the limb had kept him awake nights on end.  
  
Lucas suspected Katie's scream would grant him another bout of seemingly perpetual insomnia. The accusing look Ford had flashed at him hadn't helped either.  
  
Trying hard to pull himself out of his depressed mood, Lucas told himself that he didn't have time to self indulgent, he didn't have time to mope. He was the only one who could do anything to help them. Miguel, Tim and Ben were still missing somewhere in these woods, Katie couldn't be moved easily, and Ford was dropping in and out of reality on a fairly regular basis.  
  
Somebody had to do something, and the only somebody who appeared to be available was him.  
  
Lucas straightened up and walked back over to the others. He was trying to convince them that he had to go looking for the others when they heard a noise coming from behind them.  
  
Something, something big, was making its way through the trees. It was in a hurry, and it didn't sound happy.  
  
Lucas swollowed the lump in his throat and looked across at Ford.  
  
"Did you say something about there being bears in these woods?" Katie whispered.  
  
"The film said bears avoid confrontations with humans..." Ford replied, sounding less and less sure by the moment.  
  
"Maybe the bear saw a different film..." Lucas suggested, as the animal came closer.  
  
Lucas remembered reading a book when he was a little boy, and he was pretty sure that bears could smell blood from a great distance, the material Ford had held to his head wound was now dark red and sodden with blood.  
  
Carefully, Lucas picked up a fallen branch, tested the weight in his left hand, and took a practice swing. Then he moved in front of Katie and Ford and prepared to do whatever he could before the worse happened.  
  
Somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice said - if I die first, then at least I won't have to watch the bear hurt them...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To be continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
That's it for now; next one will be up as and when I figure out what's going to happen in it. If you have any comments to make, I'd really like to hear them - please review :o)  
  
Thanks again for all the support so far :o) 


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks go out to Diena Taylor, K. Presson, Samantha Quinn, Sara, Christine, Two2feet, Swasthi, Silver-Eagle:Jessie-West, Kiddo, Treachery89, Frankie2, Shadowsofpain, Tyger Magick, and anyone else who read Chapter 7.  
  
Please see previous chapters for all-purpose disclaimers.  
  
Chapter 8.  
  
Lucas stared intently at the gap in the trees that the bear seemed to be heading for. Closer, closer - silently he waited, not wanting to swing to soon and only be caught off guard.  
  
Three... Two... One... Swing!  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
Ben skidded and slipped down onto the floor spluttering and spitting out pine needles, while Lucas, Katie and Ford stared at him in astonishment.  
  
"Ben?" Lucas asked confused.  
  
Ben looked up at Lucas and the branch the teenager was holding.  
  
"If I get up, are you going to hit me again?" The moral officer asked, only half joking.  
  
Lucas suddenly remembered that he was still holding the branch so he tossed it aside, and offered a hand to help his friend up.  
  
"I thought you were a bear." Lucas explained.  
  
"Obviously." Ben said giving the trio a sceptical look.  
  
"Well, you see For- I mean Jonathan saw this film with bears in it and we thought you were going to attack us because we weren't singing..." Lucas let him voice trail off when he saw Ben's confused look. He cleared his throat and then added, "It seemed quite logical at the time."  
  
"Jonathan?" Somehow the Commander being called by his first name sounded a lot more surreal than bears, singing, and what ever else was going on here.  
  
Lucas smiled, for a moment losing the lines of worry that had etched themselves around his eyes since he'd been called in to try and fix a faulty radio.  
  
"Concussion, the Commander hit his head on the way down, he's a bit fuzzy about pretty much everything."  
  
"Why were you running through the words like that?" Katie called from where she was lying - her leg was now splinted so it was uncomfortable, if not impossible for her to sit up properly.  
  
"I heard you scream..." Ben answered, glancing questioningly at her leg.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Are you ok?" Tim asked Miguel.  
  
Miguel nodded, at least Tim thought it was a nod, I might have been a particularly violent shiver, it was starting to become hard to tell the difference, especially considering how light headed he felt at the minute.  
  
Miguel stared at Tim, he was still lying where he had landed, and Miguel was wondering if moving him would do more harm than good. There was still a thin trickle of blood making it's way down the gentle slope that Tim lay across, but the bleeding had almost stopped now.  
  
"We're going to have to try to move soon, we need to find the others before it gets dark." Tim answered the unspoken question.  
  
A few minutes later they were ready to try and move Tim. Gently but firmly Miguel lifted Tim into a sitting position.  
  
Tim didn't scream out in pain, but he did bite down hard on the knot of wood he'd asked Miguel to find for him to bite down on. The young enlisted man didn't waste any time - he quickly dragged Tim vaguely upright with good right arm and stumbled towards the tree line.  
  
Just about managing to keep his footing, Miguel gently positioned Tim sidelong against the base of a think tree trunk before making his way back to grab the supplies and Tim's parachute.  
  
When he'd got back to the base of the tree, Miguel carefully turned Tim so that he could see his friends back.  
  
Tim spat out the knot of wood and breathed deeply "How bad is it?" he asked, trying, all be it unsuccessfully, to hide his worry.  
  
"Um..." The young Cuban wasn't sure if he should tell Tim the truth, or if this was a good time for a white lie...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
It took over half an hour for Ben to be brought up to date on what had happened to who since they jumped, and another quarter of an hour was spent trying to convince Ben that Ford had not pushed him out of the plane. But eventually Lucas broached the subject that he had been considering for some time.  
  
"We have to go and find Miguel and Tim."  
  
Katie looked sceptical. "Standard procedure is to stay together after a crash..."  
  
"Someone needs to go and find them." Lucas stated stubbornly.  
  
"What if they are out there looking for us? You could be walking in circles around each other all night. And what if you can't find the camp again, even if you do find them."  
  
"What if they're out there all on they're own with a broken leg," Lucas stared at Katie before looking pointedly at her leg, and then glancing towards Ford. "or maybe they have concussion? What if they can't come looking for us?"  
  
Katie looked down and sighed. Technically Ford was the highest ranking and he was the one who should be making these kind of decisions, but apart from occasional giggles, the Commander was not making much contribution to the discussion. Katie was next in line, but since she couldn't even sit up she wasn't in a position to go hunting for lost crewmembers herself.  
  
Finally it was decided that Lucas and Ben would try to find Tim and Miguel, while Katie and Ford stayed put.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Um, I don't think it's too bad..." Miguel hedged. Once more he forced himself to look down to Tim's back. It was difficult to be sure how many cuts there were altogether, but the worse one sliced straight across from Tim's shoulder blade, and straight across his back towards his right hip.  
  
As far as Miguel could tell, that was where most of the blood was coming from, but the rest of Tim's back hadn't faired much better, smaller lacerations covered his pale skin. Miguel took a deep breath and methodically began cleaning the wounds as well as he could.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"It's getting dark."  
  
Katie looked across at Ford in surprise, that comment had sounded suspiciously coherent.  
  
"How are you feeling?"  
  
"Like I've had a visit from the alcohol pixies."  
  
Well, maybe coherent was too strong a word... "Alcohol pixies?" Katie asked against her best judgement.  
  
"Yep. They sneak up on you in the middle of the night - they hit you over the head with a huge hammer, steal all your money, and pee on your tongue." Ford chuckled. "When I was in military school, before I went to the academy, that was my room mate's explanation when ever we had hangovers. It was nothing to do with getting drunk, it was all to do with the pixies."  
  
Katie smiled in the twilight and looked across the parachute come blanket at Ford.  
  
"I don't remember much about you getting drunk on your military record." Katie pointed out.  
  
"Of course not, there's a good reason for that."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I had enough sense not to get caught."  
  
Katie tutted gently, "So, what else didn't you get caught doing?"  
  
"That would make a very long story..." Ford said with a grin that could be heard, even if it couldn't be seen in the falling darkness.  
  
"No problem," Katie replied, "we have all night."  
  
Ford seemed to consider this for a moment. "Well, I suppose I was quite different back then..."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Miguel."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Tim lay of his stomach under half of his parachute and wondered if Miguel was as worried about the rest of the crew as he was. "Do you think they're all right?"  
  
Miguel didn't need to ask who Tim was talking about. "Of course they are. And there's probably a rescue party on their way right now. In a few day's we'll be back on seaQuest complaining because Westphalen won't let us out of sick bay."  
  
Tim smiled at Miguel's prediction, before turning serious again. "I thought I was going to die..."  
  
"Don't worry, I thought you were dead too." Miguel replied. Tim laughed, but then clenched his teeth when the movement pulled at the cuts across his back.  
  
"I was wondering if I was right and there really was a heaven." Tim sighed. "Things like this are supposed to strengthen your faith, not make you question it..." Somehow Tim felt he had somehow failed his god by wondering.  
  
Miguel cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the topic, but even more uncomfortable with the silence. "So, how did you end up so religious anyway?"  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Maybe we should sing to keep the bears away..." Ben suggested with false cheer.  
  
"I don't need to be cheered up, Ben." Lucas responded. His tone of voice was verging on cool, but Lucas's couldn't help but crack a smile as his friend kept up a constant one sided conversation as the walked along.  
  
Lucas tripped over a rock for the third time in as many minutes landing heavily on the bag he insisted on carrying - even though Krieg had offered to take it while they walked, and he said "Shhhh... ugar."  
  
Ben couldn't stop himself from smiling. "Sugar?" but before Lucas could answer he added on a more serious note. "We can't see where we're going. We're going to have to find somewhere to rest for the night."  
  
They hunted around for a while trying to find a comfortable patch of ground. After a while they gave up and settled near the base of a tree. For a moment they sat in silence each listening to the sounds of the forest around them. In the distance they heard a lone wolf send up a mournful howl, then gradually other wolves took up and joined the howl.  
  
Ben sat up and leaned against the tree. "I don't know about you, but I don't fancy going to sleep right now..." Trying to take his mind off the wolves Ben cast around for a suitable subject. "So are you going to be after Westphalen's job when we get back to the boat?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, you seem to know a lot about first aid."  
  
"Not really, I've never taken any classes or anything..."  
  
"So how come you knew how to splint Katie's leg?"  
  
Lucas took a deep breath, out here looking up at the stars and listening to the wolves in the distance, there didn't seem to be much point in lying about the way things were...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To be continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
And now I have a choice for everyone - What do you want to read about in the next chapter? Your choices are Ford and what he used to be like, Tim and why he's religious, Lucas and what happened before he went to seaQuest or I guess you could chose D which is, according to popular tradition, all of the above.  
  
The phone lines are now open - any reviewers that state their preference will be carefully counted and the majority get whichever chapter it is that they want ;o)  
  
If you want to post a "Normal" review, that's wonderful too :o)  
  
Next Chapter will hopefully be up reasonably soon. 


	9. Chapter 9

Thank you to K. Presson, Swasthi, AshleyAHinton, Diena, KatKnits00, Tyger Magick, Christine, Jackie, Sara, Jules6, Kas, Treachery89, Ahn-Li Steffraini, Jewels03, A fan, Tippy, Teresa, FishFace12, Karel, Two2feet, Denise Patterson, Kiddo, LilLeggs, Silver_Eagle:Jessie_West Sonneta, Frankie McStein, Sugar Sugar, Whipper, and anyone else who read the last chapter :o)  
  
Special thanks go out to everyone who voted for this chapters content. The result is all of the above, but maybe a little bit more of Lucas and Ben's conversation than the other two - since quite a few people voted for that too, plus there's some of another option I forgot to out in the vote. Hope that makes everyone happy :o)  
  
Chapter 9.  
  
Nathan Bridger paced. He had a talent for it.  
  
"It's still a bit early to start worrying." Kristen pointed out as she watched him turn when he reached the door to his quarters and start back along the same route.  
  
"If it was Lucas I'd expect it, it if was Ben, I wouldn't be surprised, but this is Ford we're talking about. Have you even known him to be late checking in?"  
  
Kristen had to admit that she hadn't. Commander Ford was something of a timepiece when it came to sending reports back to the boat when he was on shore.  
  
At 2200 hr Kristen and Nathan had been sitting in front of the vid-phone waiting for it to ring. They'd even laughed and counted down from five, knowing that it would ring exactly on the hour.  
  
But the phone hadn't ring at 2200 hr or at 2300 hr either. Kristen watched the hands on the wall clock creep around to mid-night.  
  
"Maybe he thought you said a different time?" She suggested, but it was clear from her tone of voice that she didn't believe that either.  
  
They almost knocked the vid-phone on to the floor when they both dived for it as it started to ring. When they finally untangled they're hand sufficiently so that the Captain could press the button, they both frowned at the man who wasn't Commander Ford.  
  
"Captain Bridger?" A heavily accented voice asked.  
  
The Captain nodded. In the same dense Russian accent the man went on to explain that the seaQuest delegation had not arrived at the conference. He wanted to know when he could expect them. Everyone else had arrived and it was impossible to hold up an international conference just because one boat could not send her crew to arrive on time.  
  
With strained politeness the Captain apologised to the man and told him that the seaQuest delegation would be with him as soon as possible. As he switched the screen off, the Captain began to pace back and forth again.  
  
"Where do you think they are?" Kristen asked worriedly.  
  
Bridger prepared to contact the airport in order to find out just where he crew had disappeared to, at the same time he muttered, just loud enough for Kristen to overhear. "I don't know where they are, but if commander Ford doesn't have a good reason for leaving us out of the loop like this, I will personally make sure he wishes he was dead."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"I wish I was dead." Ford said, as he watched the purple and blue spots float around in front of his eyes. They looked quiet pretty he admitted to himself, but they also made it rather difficult to focus.  
  
Katie looked across at Ford and watched him rub his forehead distractedly. Curling onto his side she watched as her superior officer curled up at started to drift off to sleep.  
  
"Ford! Ford! Jonathan!" Katie grabbed a small pebble from the ground near where she lay and tossed it at Ford.  
  
Ford sat up with a jolt and looked around him in alarm.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"You promised to tell me what you used to be like." Katie explained, desperate to keep the Commander awake.  
  
"Oh, I guess I was just... different then. I didn't want to be in the military for one thing." Ford began.  
  
"Why not?" Katie asked encouragingly.  
  
"Because that's what my grandfather wanted me to be. And then there was my father, he wanted me to be a professional football player, and my mother wanted me to be a world famous dancer."  
  
"A dancer?" Katie couldn't help wondering how hard the knock on Ford's head had been.  
  
"Yep, because she was a dancer. She was in ballets all over the world, and so was her mother before her. She wanted me to carry on the tradition."  
  
Katie tried not to giggle when an image of Ford the ballet dancer popped into her head.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"It was all my fault." Lucas admitted.  
  
"It's you're fault you know first aid?" Ben queried, trying to keep up with the conversation.  
  
"It's my fault I needed to learn first aid to begin with." Lucas corrected in the same tone of voice he used to explain new computer programmes to the Captain.  
  
"Oh." Ben said, not quite following, and not quite knowing what else to say.  
  
"If I could have been normal everything would have been ok." Lucas continued. "But it never seemed to work. Whenever I tried to be normal I'd end up saying something or doing something and then everyone would know I'm a freak."  
  
"You're not a fre-"  
  
"Ben." Lucas interrupted. "I know what I am, so don't bother trying to lie about it. I'm a freak - that's why I'm on seaQuest. I'm a freak and an embarrassment. I couldn't even be a freak properly." The last sentence was whispered so quietly Ben could hardly make out the words.  
  
"No-one thinks you're an embarrassment." Ben objected.  
  
Lucas was silent for a moment. "Maybe no one on SeaQuest thinks I'm an embarrassment, but that's only because they don't know the full story."  
  
"You couldn't tell me anything that would make me think any less of you." Ben stated emphatically.  
  
"That's what they all say." Lucas said, retreating once more behind a defensive layer of sarcasm.  
  
"Ok, try me." Ben challenged.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Tell me what it is that's so terrible. And I guaranty that it won't change the way I think of you at all." Ben explained.  
  
Lucas thought back over his life before seaQuest, and wondered if it was safe to take the risk and test Ben's belief in him.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Tim shrugged. "My whole family is religious." Shaking his head he added, "Life would be a lot easier if they could just agree on a religion."  
  
"I thought you were all Catholic." Miguel said, trying to ignore the ache that had returned to his shoulder since he had left the freezing water.  
  
"Most of my mother's side of the family is Catholic, my father's side was mostly Protestant, but one my grandfathers is Jewish and one of my aunts is Muslim. Then there's my cousin who's a Wiccan. And practically everyone who's got married has married into a different faith, nationality, race or whatever." Tim chuckled, stopping abruptly when the wounds across his back pulled at the slight motion.  
  
"Family get together's must be... interesting." Miguel observed.  
  
"You have no idea. Have you ever tried to cook for a family that has half a dozen different sacred animals and even more different ways in which the food must be prepared, and then there's the matter of when we're going to meet up. Christmas doesn't suit the religions who don't celebrate the festival, Independence day is no good unless you're American, even new years is at different times for some of the family."  
  
Miguel laughed in spite of his shoulder and his shivering. "Doesn't it cause arguments, all the different religions?"  
  
"Not really, everyone worships in their own ways and lets everyone else get on with their own thing."  
  
"What about the atheists?" he asked.  
  
Tim seemed to think for a moment. "I don't think we have any atheists in the family. Or maybe any atheists turn and run at the sight of the family - at last count we had two catholic priests, one protestant priest, one rabbi, and a nun. Not to mention my grandfather who think atheists only stop believing in God because they don't want to have to get up early on a Sunday."  
  
Miguel was quiet for a moment so Tim asked what his family was like.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"I blew up the chemistry lab."  
  
"Anyone can make a mistake." Ben said easily.  
  
"Twice."  
  
"Twice?"  
  
"Once when I was six, and then again when I was eight."  
  
"How?" Ben asked before he could stop the question leaving his mouth.  
  
"I was doing experiments, the first time I mixed the wrong chemicals, the second time, an invention I was working on blew up."  
  
"Were you hurt?"  
  
Lucas seemed to consider the question for longer then Ben thought was necessary. "After the second explosion, I ended up with a broken leg."  
  
"Did you brake you're leg in the explosion, or was it when you were trying to get out of the building or what?"  
  
"No, I wasn't hurt in the explosion. I... fell down the stairs after I got home..." Lucas's voice trailed off. He couldn't help thinking that a genius should have come up with a better explanation, but his mind had gone blank, and he'd said the first thing that came into his head, when he realised that he wasn't ready to tell the truth.  
  
Ben wondered how much to say. He though about questioning Lucas's explanation, but he took the safer option.  
  
"Blowing up a chemistry lab doesn't make you an embarrassment."  
  
"When you're a famous scientist and you're son's supposed to be a genius it does."  
  
"No, Lucas, it just means you're human and you make mistakes like the rest of us."  
  
"That's the problem though, I don't make mistakes like everyone else, mine are so much bigger then normal peoples."  
  
"I don't think an accident in a chemistry lab is so bad." Ben said.  
  
"Yea, well, that was one of the least embarrassing mistakes I made..."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Nathan switched off the vid-phone and sat heavily into the chair by his desk.  
  
"They crashed..." His voice trailed off. Lucas was gone, just like Robert.  
  
The Captain looked at Kristen and saw his own emotions mirrored back at him.  
  
Kristen stood up abruptly. "We have to go to Russia."  
  
Nathan just sat there staring into space. And Kristen blinked back her tears. Kneeling down in front of his chair she shock the Captain gently.  
  
"Nathan, we don't know they didn't survive the crash. They might still be out there. We have to find them."  
  
Slowly the Captain nodded. "I'll start getting together a search party..." but he didn't sound confident.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
That's all for now, sorry there was a delay in getting this chapter posted, there's still quite a long way to go in this story, but when I've finished it, I'm planned to move on to original fiction. With that in mind if there's anything you want to happen, or anything you want to know about my version of the characters, tell me and I'll see if I can include it in future chapters - no promises though. Hope everyone is still enjoying, please review and let me know.  
  
Cadi. 


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks go to Swasthi, Frankie McStein, Sara, Teresa, Silver_Eagle:Jessie_West, K. Presson, Treachery89, Christine, Kiddo, DavinaGenevive, Tyger Magick, and everyone else who read the previous chapter.  
  
Sorry for the delay, I'm hoping to finish this story by the end of the month, so the next few instalments should be up reasonably quickly.  
  
Please see previous chapter of all-purpose disclaimer.  
  
Chapter 10.  
  
"The Captain's acting very strange." Shan said as he checked the items in the bag for the third time in as many minutes.  
  
Chief Crocker looked across the airport terminal at Captain Bridger as her paced along in front of the row of chairs where Dr. Westphalen sat.  
  
"What do you expect, Shan, he's lost one son, he's not ready to lose another one."  
  
"He acts like Lucas is already dead." Shan observed.  
  
"When Robert disappeared, the Captain was so sure we were going to find him, that it was all some big misunderstanding. He convinced himself Robert was still alive, but then, after a while you could see the doubt bubbling under the surface. When it finally boiled over, and he had to realise that Robert could dead it almost broke him. If it hadn't been for Carol...Anyway, maybe he thinks it's better to be pessimistic and have a pleasant surprise rather than be optimistic and disappointed."  
  
For a few moments they sorted through the baggage in silence. Finally Shan asked, "Do you think they're still alive, Chief?"  
  
"Stranger things have happened, Shan, stranger things have happened." Shan nodded, none of the crew were willing to say out loud what they all believed in silence.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Ben Krieg listen as Lucas told him a, what the Lieutenant was sure would turn out to be, a carefully edited version of his past.  
  
Krieg didn't interrupt when Lucas hedged around his relationship with his father, he didn't even argue when Lucas repeatedly said that while there weren't any problems in the family, if there had been any problems, than they would have been all his own fault.  
  
"The first speech I gave was a disaster," Lucas continued in a careful, measured voice. "I could understand the theories, I'd written all the programmes which proved the theories, and I had my whole speech planned out. I'd been on the stage for about half an hour when I pressed the button to start the programme on the big screen behind me..." Lucas trailed off into silence.  
  
"What happened?" Ben prompted.  
  
"Nothing." Said Lucas.  
  
"Nothing?"  
  
"Nothing what so ever, I was standing there in front of the greatest minds in the scientific community and when I pressed the button, nothing happened."  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
"I sorted the problem out, there was a lose connection between the big screen and some of the hardware that the lecture theatre had installed, it only took a few minutes to re-wire it. I finished off the speech, but the damage was done. I'd made a complete embarrassment out of my self."  
  
"How old were you?"  
  
"Seven - old enough to know that I should have check all the equipment I was using." And Ben noticed that there was a subtle change of voice when Lucas spoke about parts of his past, almost as the teenager was quoting form someone.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"My grandmother was very religious," Miguel confessed. "An Old Testament kind of Christian."  
  
"An eye for an eye?"  
  
"That was only the start of it - you know when you see films about the French revolution, and there's little old ladies sitting in the front row every time they chopped some one's head off? Well, that would have been my grandmother. Only she'd have had a rosary instead of knitting and it would be religious rather than political executions."  
  
"Sounds like an... Interesting lady." Tim said.  
  
"She always said nothing improves a person's faith more than watching someone else's head being cut off, or some one else flogged, or whatever."  
  
"Oh..." Tim said, not knowing what else to say to a statement like that.  
  
"She used to tell me that's what would happen to me if I didn't say my prayers and do what I was told."  
  
"Um... did she ever... um..."  
  
"Lay a hand on me?" Miguel finished the sentence off. "No, but there again I always said my prayers and did what I was told - until I was eighteen at least."  
  
"What happen when you were eighteen?" Tim was almost afraid to ask the question, but somehow his mouth framed the words anyway.  
  
Miguel smiled into the night. "I joined up. I haven't prayed since." The last phrase was said almost defiantly, as if he expected his friend to tell him he was wrong.  
  
Instead Tim said quietly "I remember a priest saying to me a long time ago - you should never judge a god by his believers. I think he was right, you start out with commandments about not killing people, and a couple of hundred years later Christians are crusading around the world trying to wipe out anyone who didn't want to convert."  
  
"Do you think the priest was right?"  
  
"My mothers family emigrated to America from Northern Ireland. I remember one of my uncles saying that the road he used to walk along to school was in a protestant area; some of the residents didn't think it was right for them to walk that route. It started off with throwing stones, things like that. Then some one decided stones weren't enough and sent a nail bomb flying into a group of school kids. My uncle was one of the lucky ones - he only lost a leg. It only takes one lunatic to give a religion a bad name."  
  
Each man stared out into the darkness, there seemed to be nothing more to say.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Purple? You painted it purple?"  
  
"Yep," Ford confirmed. "It took us all night, but we finally got it done. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw it and it was... purple."  
  
They both laughed, Katie was certainly seeing a new side to seaQuests XO.  
  
"What else did you do?"  
  
Ford thought for a moment "Well there was the collage run."  
  
"That doesn't sound too rebellious." Katie pointed out.  
  
"It started a whole new tradition," Ford continued. "Every year a dozen boys from the school do the collage run at midnight on the 27th of May, in the nude."  
  
"In the nude?"  
  
"Yep - we'd had way to much to drink that night." Ford chuckled.  
  
"Did you get caught?"  
  
"Everyone but me and Jackson did."  
  
"Let me guess, you two were the fastest runners?" Katie asked.  
  
"No, well, you see, we decided that if we were going to do the collage run, then we had to do it properly, and, you know when you do races, you pin a number on to your shirt. Since we weren't wearing shirts, someone came up with the wonderful idea that we should write the numbers on our chests. And someone had a permanent marker, so since we were all pretty drunk, that's what we used."  
  
"And...?" Katie prompted.  
  
"Well, the collage security guard reported that he had seen some of the students running around with numbers written on them. All the master had to do was find out which boys had numbers written on their chests and they'd caught the culprits."  
  
"So, how come you and Jackson didn't get caught?"  
  
Even in the darkness Katie could guess Ford was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. "Me and Jackson had to use tip-ex instead of permanent marker - Jackson was black too, and as it turned out tip-ex comes of much easier than permanent marker."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Nathan you're going to wear a track in the floor." Kristen sighed, as Captain Bridger turned to repeat his path once more.  
  
"How can you sit still at a time like this?" Nathan asked her.  
  
"The first critical patient I had, I paced up and down across the floor of the hospital waiting room until he was out of intensive care. And the second patient, and the third, then when my forth patient was in intensive care I fell asleep. And do you know what Nathan, that patient survived too. It didn't matter weather I paced or not, so I stopped pacing."  
  
Nathan sighed and sat down next to the doctor. "I don't think I can cope with losing another son." He whispered.  
  
"If you had to pick six people who could cope with anything, Nathan, who would you have picked? Ford, may be an idiot when it comes to dealing with scientists - but in a survival situation I'd trust him with my life - and I'd trust him with Lucas, and Tim, and all the others too."  
  
Nathan said nothing, so Kristen continued. "Have you ever know Katie to fail at something she really set her mind to? Have you Nathan? Because I haven't. And what about Ben, he may act a fool, but he's adopted Lucas, like the little brother he never had - if anyone can work a scam to get them out of there, it's Ben."  
  
Still Nathan sat in silence. "Tim's probably learned three new Russian dialects just by asking directions to the nearest town, and Miguel will have be trying them out on the local girls, probably very successfully from what I've been told by my nurses."  
  
"Lucas is just a child." Nathan said, finally looking up into Kristen's eyes.  
  
"He may be a child, but he's not just a child. How many adults would cope as well as he does on seaQuest? How many adults have an IQ off the scale? How many adults would you trust more than Lucas? Nathan, he's probably typing away on that infernal lap top of his as we speak!"  
  
Nathan nodded, "You're probably right."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Why should a seven year old know to check for something like that?"  
  
"Because he was stupid enough to have a higher IQ than his father. Because he didn't have enough sense to pretend to be normal. And because if I wasn't supposed to know, then why did my father... why did my father... why did my father say that I should have known?" Lucas stormed.  
  
"Lucas-" Ben began.  
  
"No, Ben, leave it, I'm tired and I'm going to get some sleep."  
  
"Lucas?" Ben tried again, but the teenager turned on his side and ignored his friend.  
  
Lucas pretended to sleep until he saw the dawn light penetrating the forest, he knew Ben was asleep; he'd been listening to his friend snore for the few hours. Sighing, he sat up, if they wanted to find Tim and Miguel toady, they'd have to make an early start.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
If you have any comments or requests, please let me know in a review - the next chapter will be posted up as soon as I decide what will be happening in it. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed.  
  
Cadi. 


	11. Chapter 11

Thanks to K. Presson, Sara, Sonneta, Two2feet, Teresa, Treachery89, Shadowsofpain, Kiddo, Frankie McStein, Silver_Eagle:Jessie_West, Samantha Quinn, DavinaGenevieve, Tyger Magick and anyone else who read the previous chapter.  
  
Please see earlier chapters for all-purpose disclaimer.  
  
Chapter 11.  
  
Ben tramped through the forest after Lucas and called for his friend to slow down so that he could catch up.  
  
"I heard something up ahead." Lucas shouted back.  
  
"You said that two hours ago!" Ben yelled, tripping over a moss covered root as he tried to at least keep Lucas in sight.  
  
"Ben! Ben! There's a parachute! Ben!"  
  
As Ben finally reached the parachute he leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath. He was starting to suspect that Lucas was trying to keep him so out of breath he wouldn't be able to start any conversations. So far it was working, Ben could just about manage to wheeze - talking properly was out of the question.  
  
"Any idea who's parachute it is?" Ben managed to gasp.  
  
"Miguel's." Lucas said, "I think he went that way." He added pointing towards a few broken branches.  
  
"Hold on." Ben said, grabbing the edge of Lucas's shirt when the teen made to start walking again, - he pretended not to notice the way Lucas flinched when he noticed Ben's hand. "How do you know it's Miguel's parachute?"  
  
Lucas shock Ben's hand off and pointed down at the soft mud. "Miguel wears the same size shoes as me," He placed his own shoe next to the impression that had been left in the mud. "Tim's wears two sizes bigger, so unless they swapped shoes, this is Miguel's parachute."  
  
"What else have you figured out, since some sort of expert tracker?" Ben said, raiding one of his eyebrows.  
  
"I'm no expert," Lucas disagreed, "But I'd say Miguel's hurt."  
  
"And this theory is based on..?"  
  
"He didn't take the parachute with him, I think that probably means he's hurt. There's no blood," Lucas went on "So it's most likely he's broken an arm, maybe dislocated a shoulder, or possibly something like a concussion."  
  
Ben looked sceptical, so Lucas carried on "It would be difficult to roll a parachute with an injured arm, and if he had a head injury he probably would think of it."  
  
"You seem to manage Ok with one arm." Ben pointed out. Lucas ignored him.  
  
"There's lots of broken branches this way, so I think he headed in this direction." Without looking around to see if Ben was following him, Lucas made his way between the trees, but Ben was right - Lucas's fractured arm didn't seem to worry him a lot - and that it self was one of the fact's what worried Ben all too much.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Tim woke up wondering why some one was shouting, and if they would stop if he ignored them for long enough. After a few minutes he gave up on the idea of being allowed to get any sleep, and tried to push himself into a sitting position. He'd made it about three inches off the floor before his back reminded him of his injuries and he slumped back onto the floor.  
  
Now that he was wide-awake, he recognised Miguel's voice. And, further away Tim was sure he could hear Ben as well, he listened closely for a few moments and heard Lucas as well. Tim let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"Miguel?" Tim called, trying to find out what was going on.  
  
Miguel hurried over. "Tim, everything's going to be fine, Lucas and Ben are on the other side of the river, they found Katie and Ben too, everyone's ok." Miguel said, all in one rush.  
  
Tim smiled but then asked, "How do we get across to the other side of the river?"  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"How do we get across to the other side of the river?" Ben wondered out loud.  
  
"Maybe there's somewhere we could cross over?" Lucas suggested.  
  
30 minutes and a through search of the riverbank on up and down stream later, they'd found nowhere to cross.  
  
Ben and Lucas looked at each other. They both knew that if they waited much longer, there wouldn't be enough daylight left for them to get back to Ford and Katie that day.  
  
"Someone has to go over anyway." Lucas said in the end. "Miguel's probably on the verge of hypothermia and Tim needs someone who knows how to dress wounds properly."  
  
"And that's another bit of first aid you picked up somewhere?" Ben asked. Lucas ignored him.  
  
"If we want to keep everyone together, then four of us are going to have to get wet. Lucas said. "Miguel and Tim won't be able to get over hear on their own, we'll have to go over and help them."  
  
Ben sighed. "Last one in is a rotten egg?"  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Just under an hour later four men were sitting dripping river water onto the same bank. It had taken a lot of work for Ben and Lucas to make their way over to the opposite back, and even more work, to get Tim and Miguel transferred across the other way, but they'd done it. The only thing still dry was Lucas's bag, which had been carefully placed under a tree and kept well away from the river.  
  
Now Lucas was try to explain to Ben what he needed to do to put Miguel's shoulder back properly.  
  
"There is no way I'm going to stand on his shoulder." Ben stated emphatically.  
  
"You don't have to stand on his shoulder," Lucas explained again, "All you have to do is put your foot on the shoulder joint and pull his arm, the shoulder joint should slip back into place when you release it."  
  
"It sounds painful." Ben complained.  
  
"You think it sounds painful! It's not your arm." Miguel pointed out.  
  
"The longer you leave it the more it will hurt to put back." Lucas said.  
  
"Oh, and you know this from experience?" Miguel asked will more than a little sarcasm.  
  
"Yes I do. From experience I know it hurts a lot more if you leave it." Miguel looked across at Ben, who shook his head - telling Miguel just don't go there. Although Ben made a mental note that if Lucas could make a direct comparison, he must have had a dislocated shoulder at least twice.  
  
After a bit of convincing and a short muffled scream Miguel's shoulder was laying more naturally in it's joint. After Lucas had immobilised it, Ben and Lucas stepped aside to talk out of hear shot of the others.  
  
"Do you think you could find your way back to Katie and Ford?" Lucas asked.  
  
Ben nodded. "I'm sure I could. There are still a few hours of light left, if we make god time, we could be back by dark."  
  
Now Lucas nodded. "I'll try to get Tim's back sorted out while you're gone." Ben didn't ask how Lucas knew how to treat wounds like Tim's - he was more than a little afraid of the images any answer might bring to mind.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Are you sure you know where you're going, Ben?" Katie asked her ex-husband for the third time.  
  
"I know where I'm going - we'll be there in a few minutes."  
  
"You said that half an hour ago." Katie pointed out Ben and Ford, or Jonathan as he now preferred to be called, were carrying Katie between them. Katie didn't complain about how much each movement sent a shock of pain through her leg, instead she took her mind of it by nagging him about how long the journey was taking.  
  
"When we started out, I didn't know it was going to snow, did I?" Ben muttered he was starting to shiver, and was wondering how Lucas and the other's were getting on. All three of them were still soaking wet, and the drop in temperature couldn't be helping.  
  
A few minutes later, just as Ben had predicted, they reached the other crewmembers. While everyone caught up on everyone else's injuries, Lucas looked around at the little group. The snow was falling fast now - Ford and Katie were starting to shiver, and, if Lucas was any judge - and he knew for a fact he was a very good judge, Ban, Tim, Miguel and himself would all be hypothermic by the morning.  
  
All this meant one thing - somehow he had to get a fire started.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
That's it for the moment; next chapter will be up as soon as I get time to write it. Hope everyone is still enjoying the story. Any feedback you are inclined to offer in a review will be gratefully received. 


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks to K. Presson, Treachery89, Teresa, Tyger Magick, Kiddo, LilLeggs, Koshichka, Sara, Diena Taylor, Frankie McStein, DavinaGenevieve, Swasthi, and anyone else who read the previous chapter.  
  
Frankie - If you, or anyone else for that matter, wants to save the story, I have no problem with that.  
  
Please see earlier chapters for disclaimers.  
  
Chapter 12.  
  
"Does anyone here know how to start a fire?" Lucas asked, when no one answered, he continued, "Does anyone have matches? A lighter? A piece of flint? Anything that could start a fire?"  
  
"I've got some matches." Ben volunteered.  
  
"It wouldn't do any good." Tim said. "We don't have any dry kindling - nothing that will burn well. And we won't be able to search for any properly until sun up."  
  
"Does anyone actually know how to light a fire anyway?" Ford said.  
  
"I thought the UEO would train people to do things like that - what to do in an emergency and stuff." Lucas thought out loud.  
  
"We're all submariners, Lucas," Ben pointed out, "they didn't expect us to have emergencies on dry land."  
  
Katie nodded. "We'd best conserve our energy, and see what we can do in the morning."  
  
"It's not that cold anyway." Miguel chipped in, in spite of the fact he was already shivering violently.  
  
Within a few minutes the crew were curled up under the parachutes, trying to find a little warmth under the flimsy fabric.  
  
Lucas lay under his portion of the material, and worked out the mathematical chances of them all surviving when they all had hypothermia. The chances weren't good whichever way he worked the numbers. In the end Lucas picked up his bag and made his way over to Ben and poked the Lieutenant until he woke up.  
  
"Lucas? What's wrong?" Ben mumbled, still half asleep.  
  
"I'm going to start a fire - I need your matches."  
  
"Lucas, we went through this - we can't light a fire unless we have something to burn." Ben said, slowly waking up.  
  
"I've got something that will burn - I just need your matches."  
  
Ben shuffle his way out from under the fabric and found his matches in one of his pockets - since they were in a small metal match box the worse of the water had been kept out and they were still reasonably dry.  
  
"What do you have that we can burn?" Ben whispered, trying not to wake the others.  
  
Lucas didn't answer, but began pushing together a rough circle of stones.  
  
"How do you know how to do that?" Ben asked, quietly.  
  
Lucas shrugged. "I don't know how to do it - I've only ever seen it done on TV - I just hope it gets a fire going before we start dying of hypothermia."  
  
"What are we going to burn?" Ben asked again.  
  
Lucas hesitated and then said "Nothing important - just paper. Go and see if you can find some wood that isn't completely sodden, I'll get the fire started."  
  
When Ben searched around in the undergrowth, Lucas carefully opened his bag. Inside there were his notes for the speech he had been supposed to give - that was only about five of six pages - but behind that was a much, much thinker sheaf of papers. Lucas took it out and stared at the cover page.  
  
Lucas Wolenczak,  
  
Doctorate thesis on the use of ZJJ programming in the development of  
artificial intelligence software.  
  
He'd been working on the paper for years, even before his father decided that he needed to be sent to seaQuest on account of his 'behavioural problems'. It had taken a seemingly endless number of late nights and early mornings fitted in around his seaQuest duties and whatever technical favours he had been performing for the rest of the crew. But it was finally finished.  
  
Now Lucas sat and stared at the paper as if he had never seen it before. He thought about the possibilities the paper created. Maybe his father would be proud of him if he got a Phd. Maybe that was what he needed to do to get his father's approval - it had to be, Lucas had run out of other ways to try to please his father. There were so many possibilities. Maybe it would make up for the time he destroyed the chemistry lab, and all the other times he embarrassed his father. Maybe it would make shore leaves bare able and he wouldn't have to worry weather or not his friends on seaQuest would notice that he always wore long sleeves etc. for a couple of weeks after each visit to his father.  
  
It was also possible that his friends, the friends who never thought he had a discipline problem, who never said "spare the rod and spoil the child", and who sometimes made him forget what a failure he was, it was possible his friends would die because he was to busy feeling sorry for himself to do the only thing that might save them.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Shan and Crocker sat in the room that had been made available for them to rest in before the search for the missing crew started at first light.  
  
Shan opened one of the bags to take out one of the hand held radios they would be using during the search. But rather than the two radios, that is, his and Crocker's, which he had expected to find, there were several more in the bag.  
  
"Chief? Did you pack this bag?" Shan asked.  
  
Crocker glanced up. "Yes, why?" He asked stretching his neck and trying to work out the kinks that the recent stress had lodged there.  
  
"There's eight radio's in here." Shan said, his confusion apparent.  
  
"I know." Crocker said helpfully.  
  
"Why?" Shan prompted.  
  
"Why not?" Crocker hedged.  
  
"Chief?" Shan said, exasperated.  
  
"It's nothing you need to worry about, Shan. It's something of a tradition, and it's between the Captain and me. With any luck we won't need them. So let's just leave those radios be, Ok?"  
  
Shan nodded, the Chief was an infamous source of knowledge when it came to obscure traditions and strange sailors rituals. Shan was more than half sure that his friend made up some of the more colourful stories, but had too much respect for Crocker to say so out loud.  
  
"What ever you say, Chief."  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Lucas?" Ben asked as he approached his friend carrying the driest pieces of dead wood he could find.  
  
Lucas guiltily tore off the cover page of his thesis and scrupled it up. "This should burn pretty well." He said.  
  
Carefully the two friends put a match to the page. The notes for the lecture followed quickly and then with only a tiny hesitation, Lucas began to feed the first pages of his last hope with his father into the flames.  
  
"Do you always carry this much paper with you?" Ben asked, as the silence between them grew oppressive.  
  
"Sometimes." Lucas hedged.  
  
Ben gently took one of the pages from Lucas. He stared at it for a moment and then turned it upside down to see if it made any more sense that way. Even in the circumstances, Lucas couldn't help but crack a smile.  
  
"It's part of a new programming language I've been working on."  
  
"Oh," Ben said. "I hope you have another copy of this somewhere." He added with a smile.  
  
"Of course." Lucas replied, although his smile was a little bit more strained. In fact Lucas had made several back up copies of his thesis. On to disc, mini-disc and even on to something called a floppy disc that Bridger had told him used to be used a lot when he was younger. And of course there was a copy on his laptop. Unfortunately they were all in the bags that were still in the plane which had crashed somewhere into the forest, and therefore probably in even worse condition than the dwindling copy he held in his hands.  
  
Ben brought Lucas back from his wandering thoughts, "Lucas?" When Lucas looked up Ben continued. "Earlier on we were talking about how you knew so much about medicine..."  
  
Lucas nodded warily.  
  
Subtlety was not one of Ben's strong suits so he opted for a direct approach. "Did you're father ever hit you?" he said simply, as if it was the kind of question anyone would ask over a quite meal or a glass of wine in the evening,  
  
Lucas didn't answer straight away, and Ben was beginning to wonder if the teenager was simply going to ignore the question. When Lucas said something that Ben didn't expect - "Of course."  
  
There was silence for a few seconds. "Your father abused you?" Ben asked trying to make sure they were on the same page of the conversation.  
  
"No," Lucas corrected his friend. "He disciplined me."  
  
Ben's mouth opened and closed, as he tried to fit the word "discipline" into a child knowing how to splint broken legs and dress wounds.  
  
"And you learned how to give first aid...?" Ben asked, trailing off, not able to shape the words to finish the question.  
  
"Of course, it's not as if we could go to the doctor. They wouldn't understand; they'd have got the wrong idea."  
  
"The wrong idea?" Ben whispered.  
  
"They wouldn't have understood that it was my fault my father needed to discipline me. Because they've never tried to raise a child with an IQ which goes straight off the scale, so they'd poke their nose into our business and make matters worse."  
  
"You think what you're father did, was all your fault?" Ben asked, trying to keep his anger at Lucas's father under control.  
  
"I know it was my fault." Lucas replied, still staring into the fire rather than at Ben.  
  
"How?" Ben asked, sure he would not like the answer.  
  
"Because my father told me so." Lucas stated calmly, as if the answer should have been obvious.  
  
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To Be Continued...  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
That's it for now, hope people are still enjoying. Next chapter will be up as soon as I get a chance to write it. If you have any comments please review - any and all feed back helps :o) 


	13. Chapter 13

Thanks to LilLegs, Tippy, KatKnits00, Sara, Treachery89, Jewels03, K. Presson, Swasthi, Samantha Quin, Frankie McStein, DavinaGenevieve, Tyger Magick, Kiddo, Teresa and anyone else who read the last chapter.  
  
Please see previous chapters for disclaimers.  
  
Chapter 13.  
  
"Your father told you it was your fault he abused you?" Ben asked in astonishment.  
  
"Disciplined." Lucas corrected.  
  
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Ben asked.  
  
Lucas looked confused. "I kind of figured that you would be able to work out that I had a discipline problem with-out me having to spell it out for you."  
  
"You don't have a discipline problem." Ben said annunciating each word with exaggerated care.  
  
Lucas shrugged, "You're entitled to your own opinion, Ben."  
  
Ben cast around for a way to convince Lucas that he was right. "If you're right, how come no one on seaQuest has ever hit you?"  
  
Again Lucas shrugged, "Maybe I just haven't done anything too bad since I got on the boat, or there again maybe none of you know me as well as my father does."  
  
Ben stopped and watched his young friend for several moments. "You really believe it, don't you, you really believe it's your fault?"  
  
"What's who's fault?" Katie asked sleepily, turning her head to face them, as the combination of the smoke from the now quite established fire, and the quiet conversation succeeded in waking her up.  
  
Lucas didn't even look around. He said "It's my fault I have a discipline problem."  
  
"You don't have a discipline problem." Katie said. "Ben, why did you of all people tell Lucas he had a discipline problem?" Katie asked her ex-husband in none too friendly a tone of voice.  
  
"What? Me?" Ben protested, wondering how everything was suddenly his fault. "I never said that!"  
  
Katie looked disbelieving at Ben. "I didn't!" Ben said again.  
  
"If you didn't say it, then why does he believe it?" Katie said, her disbelief clear on her face.  
  
"Because... Because..." Ben didn't want to tell Katie anything that would betray his young friends trust so soon after he had gained it. "Because... someone else told him so." He finally finished off, unhappily.  
  
"Who?" Said Katie.  
  
"I can't tell you." Ben said, sighing.  
  
"Because it's not true." Katie said, all her suspicions confirmed.  
  
Lucas listened to them talk about him apparently as if they had forgotten that he was even present. It didn't surprise him - he was used to people forgetting that he existed until they wanted him to do something, until they wanted some computer programming written, or wanted some one to be the model son and shake hands with potential donars at some fancy dinner, or until something on seaQuest broke down.  
  
He knew that it wasn't their fault - he was sure it had to be that he was just a very easy person to forget about. As the fire burned hotter, Lucas began feeding in more or the wood and less of the paper, until it reached a point when he put the paper aside and watched as the flames flickered around the wood.  
  
As he tuned back into the now quite heated conversation between Ben and Katie, Lucas realised that it was his fault they were arguing. "Ben's telling the truth," he confirmed, "He just doesn't understand that my father was doing what was best for me."  
  
Katie was half sure that she actually felt the blood drain from her face as all the dots connected up inside her mind.  
  
"Lucas," she said, measuring each word carefully as she said it, "Do you think it's possible that what your father did wasn't right?"  
  
"No." Lucas said simply.  
  
"That maybe it was your father's fault and no your own?" She suggested.  
  
Lucas seemed to consider this, but in truth, it was an idea he had dismissed a long time ago. It had to be his fault. If he'd just done things right, the way his father wanted them to be done, then his father wouldn't have had to get angry with him. When ever the question of his father doing wrong came into his mind - usually at three o'clock in the morning, when he'd woken up from a dream he was desperate to forget, he always came to the same conclusion.  
  
"My father was only doing what was best for me, he didn't want to... to... hurt me, but I left him no choice - it was all my fault."  
  
Neither Katie nor Ben knew what to say. After several moments of silence, Ben finally said "Maybe your father -"  
  
But Lucas cut him off. "My father loves me and that makes what ever he did right!" he practically shouted.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Nathan Bridger finally stopped pacing when the got into the small plane that was going to fly them over the plane that had been carrying the crews last known co-ordinates, but only because it was a small plane and there was hardly room to stretch his leg let alone get up and walk around.  
  
So he sat by the window and watched the trees stream past below them. He'd been told to watch for any break in the trees that could have been made by a plane crashing through the foliage. Nathan strongly suspected that the local authorities were humouring his request that they be involved in the search.  
  
He knew that the man sitting next to the pilot was a trained to spot all the signs - and so was far more qualified to notice a disturbance in the dense landscape than a UEO Captain who was far more at home under the sea than he ever was on dry land. But he couldn't just sit in some barracks and wait, he had to do something, or at least feel like he was doing something positive.  
  
Nathan Bridger didn't think he could cope with losing the best of his senior crew - and he knew he couldn't cope with losing another son.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
As the others in the crew woke up, at the sudden exclamation, Lucas stared defiantly at Ben and Katie, daring them to disagree with him.  
  
"Lucas," Katie said, changing tactics. "If our places were reversed. If I were to tell you that my father hit me, what would you say?"  
  
"That would be different." Lucas said, "You're a girl."  
  
Katie looked nonplussed so Lucas continued. "Because if what your father did wasn't justified then you wouldn't have been able to fight back."  
  
"Did you ever fight back?" Ben asked.  
  
The look in his eyes told Ben that Lucas never had.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
"Maybe we'll find them tomorrow, Nathan."  
  
"Maybe." Nathan agreed. "I don't understand it, a plane can't just disappear into thin air."  
  
Kristen glanced worriedly at the Captain. "I don't suppose they would have tired to go around the weather?" She wondered out loud.  
  
"The pilot would have radioed a course change." Nathan said.  
  
"What if there was a problem with the radio?" Kristen asked.  
  
"True, but the chances are pretty slim."  
  
Kristen sighed. "Yes - I suppose they are."  
  
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Lucas looked around and realised that everyone was staring at him, and that they all knew. He wondered how their knowing would change things. Would they realise that his father was right? Would they decide that they didn't want him on the boat? Would they send him home? Would they tell the Captain?  
  
That was when Lucas realised a surprising fact - the Captain had never hit him. Not when he caught him playing computer games on the seaQuests mainframe, or playing with Darwin, when he should have been working. Not even when he was upset because Lucas had stayed up all night working on some project or other. Bridger hadn't even raised a hand to him when he'd answered back and deliberately pushed all the Captains buttons to see how far he could get away with pushing his luck.  
  
Lucas didn't want to think about what his father would have to say when he found out that he'd managed to get himself stuck in the middle of Siberia - and with out even a thesis to offer up as some sort of mitigating circumstance. But somehow he knew that the Captain wouldn't be mad at him; that he wouldn't blame him for the plane crash.  
  
Maybe if everything was kept quiet, then his father wouldn't have to find out, but for some reason, Bridger always insisted in trying to tell his father about everything, not that he had much luck getting thought to the great Dr. Wolenczak.  
  
Lucas looked around at all his friends as they stared at him, most of them not understanding what had prompted the outburst. Lucas sighed and said. "I'm going to get some sleep - I suggest you all do the same."  
  
"Lucas?" Ben tried, but his friend ignored him and curled up under a corner of the parachute to go to sleep.  
  
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It was some ours later, and Lucas was still awake, although he could hear gentle snores coming from some of the others. He'd been thinking about their situation. He knew that in any situation like this - everyone was supposed to stay with the plane. The search parties would be far more likely to spot a plane than an individual person. Someone needed to get to the plane and leave some sort of instructions on how to find the others; otherwise they were going to be in the forest indefinitely.  
  
Lucas thought about the practicalities of this. Katie and Tim couldn't be moved very far, very easily, Ford concussion made him slightly less than reliable. Miguel was having trouble with his shoulder, since he wasn't used to working with one hand. Ben was fit and able, but it would have been insane to leave the group without someone to help them. That just left Lucas himself.  
  
He weighed the advantages and disadvantages of going to find the plane. One the one hand he'd be all on his own, making his way though a forest he didn't know, with only one good arm. On the other hand, he could stay with the others and defend his father against people who seemed determined to think the worse of him.  
  
The forest looked more and more appealing the longer he spent considering his choices.  
  
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To Be Continued...  
  
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This all for now, please review - any feedback you can offer is always immensely helpful. The next chapter will be up as soon as I've written it. Thanks again to all the people who have reviewed so far.  
  
Cadi. 


	14. Chapter 14

Thanks to K. Presson, Tyger Magick, Sara, Phantom Reader, Teresa, Swasthi, Sanneta, Frankie McStein, Diena Taylor, Kiddo, and anyone else who was kind enough to review the previous chapter.  
  
Please see the disclaimers posted within earlier chapters.  
  
Chapter 14.  
  
Lucas looked back at the sleeping crewmembers one last time. He added a few more bits of wood to the fire, and he sighed in relief when none of the crew woke up. The last thing he needed was a full-scale debate over whether or not he should look for the plane on his own.  
  
He quickly scribbled a note onto the back of a page of his thesis that had yet to go for ashes, and leaving the rest of the pages in case the fire needed to be re-lit before he could find help, Lucas left.  
  
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Miguel was the first of the crew to stir, and he lay on the uncomfortable floor listening to the fire crackle a little way off. The sun was just appearing over the treetops, but it was the thin, watery sunlight that promised more snow before noon.  
  
He made his way over to the fireside, to make the most of the heat, and almost stepped on the note. He read it through several times; before he managed to believe what his eyes insisted was written there.  
  
"Lucas!" Miguel called, hoping, against all the chances that the teen had not gone far and that he would come back, if he just shouted loud enough.  
  
The others awoke with a jump. "What's wrong?" Katie asked. Miguel stopped shouting, and silently handed her the note.  
  
Katie read the note. "What was he thinking?" Ben said as he read over his ex-wife's shoulder. "He must realise that we need to stay here - that there'll be a rescue part on its way. I mean, the pilot must have radioed someone the co-ordinates where we jumped, right?"  
  
Katie nodded then, realising what Lucas must have already worked out - there was no way the pilot had sent anything over the radio - no one knew where hey were or that they had jumped, or even that they had tried to fly around the worse of the storm. The only chance they had of rescue lay in finding the plane. If the authorities happened to fly over this area, they might spot where the plane landed, but it would be next to impossible to spot a small group of people.  
  
"Radioed..?" Katie said quizzically.  
  
Ben looked worried, "The pilot did radio, didn't he?"  
  
Katie pulled her self together and smiled reassuringly "Of course - why wouldn't he?"  
  
As the others read the letter, their calls filled the forest.  
  
Lucas was still only a short distance away, and he could her the calls, but he didn't turn back - sooner or later some one would have to try to find the plane - and the sooner that happened the sooner they could be back safe on seaQuest.  
  
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Days passed very slowly for the Captain and Kristen as they searched. Day by day the search area widened as more and more ground was flown over and found to hold no trace of crashed planes or missing crew.  
  
Each day the Captain became more and more withdrawn, and Kristen became more and more worried, some days she felt that finding something, even if it was what they were all dreading to find, wound be better than finding nothing at all.  
  
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Shan and Crocker sat in their room after another fruitless day in the air. Shan seemed to have something on his mind, "Chief?" When Crocker looked up, he continued, "You know the radios you said not to ask about?"  
  
The Chief sighed. "What about them?"  
  
"Are they for the survivors?"  
  
"No, Shan, exactly the opposite in fact."  
  
Shan looked at his friend, not bothering to hide his curiosity at an statement that prompted more questions than it answered, but that seemed to be all the answer he was going to get, so he decide that Crocker would tell him when he was ready, and went to sleep.  
  
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Lucas walked in as straight a line as is possible when trees keep getting in the way. Mostly he used the time he was on his own to think. He needed something to take his mind off the snow, and the cold, and the hunger. The topic on his mind most often was Captain Bridger. Or to be more precise how the Captain was going to react when he found them, and what Bridger would do if, or rather when, Ben blurted out about his past - he just hoped that the Captain would understand, although it was obvious no one else did.  
  
Still, Lucas knew his father loved him. He remembered when he was little, going to baseball games and museums. Lucas couldn't help but smile when he remembered his father teaching him how to use a computer, and he grinned when he remembered the pride on his fathers face when he mastered all the workings of every available programme before he started school. His father loved him - he wanted him to be a success, that's why he was so hard on him, because he wanted the best for him.  
  
He was so deep in thought that it was several moments before his ears managed to get his attention and tell him that that noise in the distance sounded a lot like an airplane.  
  
Lucas looked up, seeing nothing but trees and a small patch of sky where the branches of the trees did not quite met.  
  
He shouted up at the noise "Here! Down here!" he waved his good arm, knowing that the plane could neither hear nor see him, but still shouting and still waving all the same. "Please! I'm down here! No! Don't go! Come back! I'm down here!"  
  
But the plane carried on flying, not realising that it had left the very person it was looking for was on his knees beneath a tree crying in frustration and hopelessness.  
  
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"Do you see anything?" Kristen asked as Bridger peered out of the window on his side of the plane.  
  
The Captain shook his head. But a few minutes later the man sitting next to the pilot made a hand signal to the pilot and the plane was steered in a slow low circle, and as it past the same point again the spotter nodded decisively. Down below them, in between broken tree trunks was a plane.  
  
It took a seemingly infinite length of time to go back to the nearest airport and to return to the crash site in a helicopter. There was no chance of landing in a plane, and even the helicopter had to hover while the Captain, Kristen, Shan and Crocker were lowered down.  
  
The captain was the first on the ground, and as soon as he had detached himself from the cable, he rushed towards the plane. One of the wings had been torn off during landing, and several of the side panels on the body of the plane were buckled, lose or simply not there. The whole body of the plane was scorched and sooty, probably from a fire after the crash, the Captain thought.  
  
He called out to his crew, but no one answered. Bridger made his way into the plane and on into the cockpit. If he were in a plane crash and had to leave the plane for some reason - that's where he would have left a message for any rescuers.  
  
There was no message, but there was a corpse. Or at least some chard remains in a pilots uniform, and that worried Nathan Bridger. He couldn't find a logical reason why the survivors didn't give the body a proper burial. It didn't make sense... unless there were no survivors.  
  
He made his way back out into the passenger section of the plane. The fire seemed to have burned more fiercely here. There was nothing but ash and a few bits of distorted metal - Nathan found himself wondering how hot a flame had to burn to reduce a human being to ash.  
  
Kristen came into the plane then. "Is there anyone...?" She began.  
  
Nathan cleared his throat. "The pilot's in the cockpit." Kristen made to go through, but the Captain put a hand on her arm to stop her. "There's nothing you can do for him."  
  
Kristen gently removed his hand and went on regardless. She came back some moments later, more sombre and less hopeful.  
  
"They could have left the crash site." Kristen suggested.  
  
"They would have buried the body." His voice was flat, and emotionless.  
  
"Maybe there was something stopping them, maybe they left because of the fire..."  
  
Shan came in then. "The luggage section was damaged - this was thrown clear of the fire." He said quietly, handing a bag to the Captain.  
  
Bridger looked down at an all to familiar bag. He'd seen Lucas carrying it around a hundred times. It had always looked a bit scruffy, but now it was slightly scorched on one side and was sodden with snow. "They might have left a corpse - but Lucas wouldn't leave his lap top behind." He said resigned to what seemed inevitable.  
  
"Nathan," Kristen began.  
  
But he cut her off. "I'd like to be alone for a few minutes, please."  
  
Shan nodded and Kristen left behind him.  
  
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It was more than a few minutes later when Crocker came in and sat next to the Captain on the sooty floor.  
  
"What do you want, Crocker?" Bridger asked tiredly.  
  
Wordlessly Crocker handed him a pair of small, slightly old-fashioned radios. Bridger stared at in through misty eyes. It was almost identical to one that rested on a shelf beside his bed. "You have a good memory, old friend." He said through a voice that he couldn't quite keep from shaking.  
  
And Bridger remembered that night too.  
  
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It had been some months after Robert had been reported missing, and he had been drowning his sorrows in cheap scotch when Crocker had found him. "Do you know what I miss most?" Nathan had slurred. "Just talking to him. I just want to talk to my son."  
  
So Crocker had piled his friend onto a boat and sailed it out into the surf, until they were almost out of sight of land and as near as anyone could guess to where Robert disappeared. Nathan had stared at Crocker in confusion when he'd pulled out a two-way radio. Handing on to Nathan he's told him to throw it over board. Nathan had protested, but in the end he threw it with all its might into the ocean.  
  
"Are you happy now?" he'd asked Crocker.  
  
The Chief had ignored him and just handed him the other radio saying, "Talk to your son." And that's what the Captain had done. He'd talked to that radio, with tears running down his face, as if his son was on the other side of it listening. He told Robert all the things he'd wished he'd had the chance to say while his son was alive - that he loved him - that he was proud of him - that he was sorry. And maybe that, and Carol, was what had saved his sanity.  
  
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"I still talk to him sometimes." Bridger admitted with a sigh.  
  
"I thought maybe, you'd want to talk to Lucas after we leave..." Crocker said, trailing off.  
  
Bridger nodded. "Thank you."  
  
Crocker left then, and a few minutes later, Nathan followed, carefully leaving one of the radios on the floor where he'd sat.  
  
He knew that there would be a party sent out from the local authorities at some point, to collect the remains of the pilot, write a report on the crash, and tie up any lose ends as best they could. And though they might think it strange, they won't move a small hand held radio, not if the most prestigious Captain in the UEO asked them not to.  
  
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To Be Continued...  
  
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That's all for now, thanks again to all those who reviewed the earlier chapters. Please review if you have any comments about this chapter - feedback is always really helpful. Hope people are still enjoying the story - there's not too much left now, if all goes to plan. Next chapter will be up as soon as possible.  
  
Plus, I've just posted a story on FictionPress.com, under the same pen name, so if anyone wants to read it, I'd really love some feed back on that too. (Ok, I don't do subtlety, so I thought honesty would be worth a shot :o))  
  
Cadi. 


	15. Chapter 15

Thanks go to Samantha Quinn, Jewels03, Tyger Magick, Teresa, K, Presson, KatKnits00, Diena Taylor, Sara, Kiddo, OpheliaMinuit, LilLeggs, Swasthi, and any one else who read the previous chapter.  
  
Please see earlier chapters for all-purpose disclaimers.  
  
Chapter 15.  
  
For a long time after the noise of the plane died away Lucas didn't move - there didn't seem to be a lot of point in doing anything when he had no idea what there was for him to do. He considered making his way back to the others, but discounted that idea, because he had no idea what he could say to the others when he reached them - Sorry, but we're stuck here indefinitely because I didn't find the plane fast enough to get us rescued? Somehow it didn't have quite the right ring to it.  
  
So Lucas slowly got up and kept going towards where he estimated the plane would have crashed, in the hope that he would at least be able to find some useful supplies to take back to Ben and the others.  
  
It took another four days before Lucas finally found the crash site, he walked through as many daylight hours as he could manage, and then fell exhausted under a tree each night. The snow seemed to be falling heavier now, although Lucas wasn't one hundred percent sure of this. He wasn't sure about anything now, all he knew was that he was hungry and cold, and that there was no longer any chance of being rescued.  
  
By the time he found the plane, Lucas couldn't truly remember why he'd gone looking for it in the first place. It was like trying to think through cotton wool. The thoughts were there, he just could catch hold of them for long enough to make sense of them.  
  
Lucas stood looking at the plane and then headed into the main body of the aircraft. There were snowdrifts where the wind had piled the snow across the floor, but Lucas was too tired to care. He half-heartedly pushed some of the snow out of the way and curled into a ball in a corner that at least offered some protection from the wind.  
  
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The seaQuest was docked in the closest Russian port to where six members of its crew had gone missing, and Bridger sat watching the lights from the aqua tube play across the ceiling. Darwin floated in the tube, but said nothing. The Captain knew that he should have told Darwin that Lucas wasn't going to come back, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. Saying it out loud would almost make it real. And the Captain wished more than anything that it wasn't real.  
  
Bridger reached for the radio from besides his bed and sighed. "Lucas, I wish I could let you know how much we all miss you. Kristen's thrown her self into her work so hard, all the other scientists are afraid to go into the labs whenever she's in there - and she's there all the time. She's kept one of the Ensigns in sickbay for observation and tests for three days after he got a tiny little cut his arm. And everyone's terrified of getting sick, because they have no idea what she'll do to them."  
  
The Captain swallowed, trying to clear the lump that formed in his throat whenever he held the radio. "Darwin's doing well, we haven't told him ... I haven't ... But Darwin's doing fine. And we've tried to contact your family, but your father's secretary said he's away doing some research and he's going to phone us as soon as he gets back." The Captain couldn't prevent his voice from cracking as he thought about all the unanswered messages, so he hurriedly changed the subject. "The vo-corder is still working really well, although the computers in engineering have been playing up..."  
  
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Lucas lay looking out of the ripped metal where the wall of the plane used to be and wonder if hallucinating was a bad sign. He was so sure that he could hear the Captain talking to him, but it had to be his mind playing tricks on him. He wanted to believe that the Captain was there, but he'd stopped believing in miracles a long time ago. Still, it sounded so much like the Captain, and the description of Dr. Westphalen seemed so accurate...  
  
Lucas gave up trying to sleep. The voice had to be coming from somewhere; he was not quite ready to believe that he was going insane. Lucas listened carefully, and moved slowly towards the direction of the voice. It looked like a snowdrift was talking to him, by Lucas was too much of a scientist to accept that frozen water was worried about telling Darwin that he was dead, so bracing himself against the cold, Lucas pushed his hand into the snow, and, maybe, just maybe, there was a little bit of him that gave a silent sigh of relief when the drift didn't say "Ouch!"  
  
His only good hand searched through the snow, and as the voice told him about his father's lack of response, his fingers closed around a lump of metal that felt suspiciously like an old two-way radio.  
  
Lucas pulled the radio out and stared at it in confusion. One phrase caught his attention, and although he couldn't explain radios living in snowdrifts, there were still some things that Lucas was certain of. He pressed the button and spoke into the radio.  
  
"It's probably the connections leading to the X27 port, that's what it usually is when the computer in engineering acts strange..."  
  
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For several moments the Captain stared at the radio, while it lay on the floor in exactly the same position as it had landed in after he'd dropped it in surprise. Lucas was dead, Bridger told himself - there was no way he was talking to him.  
  
"Lucas, Lucas on radio." The vo-corder translated as Darwin let off a series of whistles and clicks.  
  
Bridger looked up at Darwin, if Darwin was hearing the voice too, then... No! Bridger told himself - Lucas is dead, they're all dead, they all died in the plane crash. But... on the other hand maybe it couldn't hurt to get a second opinion.  
  
Several crewmembers shot surprised looks at their Captain as he run through the hallways of seaQuest holding a radio. But the Captain was grieving for a boy who was like his son, and that can excuse an awful lot of strange behaviour.  
  
Kristen, however, was not in the mood for idiots to come rushing into her lab babbling something about voices and radios, and she was about to tell the Captain that in no uncertain terms when the voice coming from the radio got through to her.  
  
It was a voice she recognised, even when, or maybe especially when, it was giving detailed instructions on the way the computer system in engineering should be fixed, or, for preference, the way it should be redesigned by a certain teen age genius who should have been allowed to re-design them a long time ago. And the associated complaints that had if he'd been allowed to redesign it once and for all, then he wouldn't have to spend several hours every week trying to make it carry out the simple tasks it was designed for.  
  
It was a speech Kristen had heard many, many times before, usually whenever Lucas was dragged way from the science labs by a call from one of the crew in engineering.  
  
Both the Captain and Kristen stood watching the radio as Lucas went on at length about the computer system and the idiocy of whoever had designed it to begin with. They were both terrified that trying to reply would break the spell and the voice would disappear. They were several minutes into an impromptu lecture on the intricacies of advanced computer repair when the Captain built up the courage to press the button that would allow him to speak to the person on the other end of the radio.  
  
"Lucas? Is that you?" He said in a voice that could manage no more than a whisper.  
  
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Lucas paused his monologue and looked at the radio with much the same expression that Kristen and Bridger had looked at its partner on the seaQuest.  
  
"Captain?"  
  
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To Be Continued...  
  
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Hi, everyone, hope people are still enjoying the story, I think there's only one chapter left to come, and that's it. I'm not planning a sequel, or any other seaQuest stories, because I'm hoping to get some original fiction written soon. Please give me any feedback you can think of in a review, and thanks again to all those who've been reviewing all the way through. The next chapter will be up as soon as I can get it written.  
  
Cadi. 


	16. Chapter 16

Thanks to Tyger Magick, Ahn-Li Steffraini, Teresa, Karel, Jewels03, K. Presson, Sara, Kiddo, LilLeggs, Silentia, and anyone else who read the previous chapter, and thanks to all those who've been reading and reviewing all the way through.  
  
Just to repeat the earlier disclaimer - I don't own anyone, or anything, and I'm not making any money by writing this.  
  
I don't know if the ending will be what people are hoping for, but here goes anyway...  
  
Chapter 16.  
  
The Captain never let the radio out of his sight as he and Kristen rushed to and fro organising a new search party. In the thirty minutes it took for them to leave the boat, Kristen gathered as much information as she could about the extent of everyone's injuries - although she was unable to get a straight answer from Lucas as to who'd known how to treat then so well.  
  
Chief Crocker grinned like the proverbial cat, when he realised that the radio he had given to the Captain may well be responsible for saving the lives of six of the crew. Shan knew that what ever happened in the future, when ever he made some comment about his friend obsession with tradition, the Chief was going to have the perfect come back.  
  
It seemed to take an age for them to reach the airport that the rescue would be leaving from, and they only just managed to get there in time to jump on the helicopter. Over the noise of the blades, the Captain strained to hear Lucas's voice over the radio. It wasn't easy to make out his words, as the teen tried unsuccessfully to hide his shivers.  
  
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Lucas sat looking up at the sky, waiting for some glimpse of the helicopters lights, even though he knew it was still probably miles away. He knew he should try to keep awake, but somehow his eyelids kept drooping further and further down until his body gave in and Lucas him slip first into sleep, and then in to something much deeper and much more worrying.  
  
He did not stir when Bridger spoke, then called, and then yelled through the radio, he didn't even stir when the helicopter finally came into view and hovered overhead. Nathan came down the rope first, closely followed by Kristen, and they rushed across to Lucas. He just lay there, and at first the Captain thought he wasn't breathing, but soon realised that although Lucas's breathing was shallow it was still steady.  
  
Kristen called for a stretcher to be lowered down to them, and began checking Lucas methodically for any injuries. In the back of her mind, a note was made to thank whoever had splinted his arm - they'd done a good job, far better than even most doctors would have done considering the limited supplies.  
  
Covering him with a blanket she pushed his hair away from his face, taking the opportunity to rest the back of her hand against his forehead - his temperature was running even higher than she would have thought. He mumbled something at her gentle touch.  
  
"Lucas, everything's going to be Ok. We're taking you back to the seaQuest, you're going to be fine." She reassured him.  
  
He tried to say something again, but she couldn't make out the words. "Hush, Lucas, you need to rest."  
  
"West..." He finally managed to say.  
  
"West?" Kristen asked, not understanding what Lucas was getting at.  
  
"Go west... by the river... Ben... Katie... everyone... go west..." Lucas stuttered between shivers.  
  
Nathan was standing on the other side of Lucas, and as the pieces of the puzzle fell together he said: "It's Ok, Kiddo, we'll find them, you don't need to look after anyone but yourself."  
  
Lucas nodded, slowly. "I'm sorry," he said, before he slipped back out of consciousness.  
  
The Captain looked at Kristen in confusion, but she was setting up an IV and didn't have time to worry about strange apologies.  
  
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"Hello, sleepy." Lucas heard someone talking to him, but turned away and tried to shut out the noise. He was warm, and comfortable and determined that no one was going to wake him up, until he was good and ready.  
  
"Do you want some breakfast?" The voice asked. And Lucas's stomach rumbled at the mention of breakfast, and he amended - he wasn't going to wake up until he was good and ready, unless someone was offering him food.  
  
Carefully he opened his eyes, and winced at the sharp lights of med bay. Propping himself up on his good elbow, and peering around the room Lucas saw that extra beds had been brought into the room from somewhere. He shot a questioning glance at Ben, who was lying sprawled out on the next bed.  
  
"Dr. Westphalen decided she needed to keep an eye on all of us."  
  
"How long are we going to be in here?" Lucas asked. Taking in the other beds.  
  
"Another couple of days at least." Ben answered.  
  
"Another?" Lucas prompted.  
  
"You've been... asleep for three days. We've been whispering the whole time, because Kristen has made very specific threats about what would happen to us if we woke you up." Ben said after a pause, in which he wondered if he should tell Lucas that he'd managed, with great difficulty, to convince the Captain to wait for explanations until Lucas woke up.  
  
"How's everyone else?" Lucas said eager to turn the attention away from him self.  
  
"Fords making sense again, and everyone else is healing well, you gave us a scare though." Ben decided that Lucas not to worry Lucas but telling him how things had gone after he'd left. Five cold, hungry, people do not make good company for each other. It had only been about two days before the temper tantrums and name-calling began.  
  
Lucas seemed unsure about what to say next, but he finally took a deep breath and asked the question that was troubling him.  
  
"Is everyone mad at me?" He asked in no more than a whisper.  
  
"Of course not. We weren't happy when you left on your own, but, after the rescue party arrived, Katie told us about the pilot not being able to radio, we know you did what you thought was best. I just wish you'd let me come with you."  
  
Lucas looked down at his lap and said nothing.  
  
"There's something else I wanted to ask you about." Ben told him. Lucas braced himself for questions about his past, about his family. But Ben pulled a rather crumpled piece of paper out from one of his pockets and passed it over to Lucas.  
  
Lucas recognised it as the last page of his thesis. "It wasn't anything that important." He hedged.  
  
"Lucas, I may not understand this programming language, but I know you, and if you wrote a programme and it was special enough for you to keep a paper copy of it - I'd bet any money that it is important to you."  
  
"Earlier on, you mentioned breakfast." Lucas said, blatantly changing topics.  
  
Ben sighed. "I'll go find Kristen and ask her if you're allowed to eat." He said, knowing that was the closest Lucas would come to giving him an answer.  
  
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Five minutes later Kristen was examining Lucas, and telling him in no uncertain terms that there was no possibility of him getting out of sick bay for at least another week, not matter how many computer systems on the ship broke down. Ben was sitting in Lucas's room, in front of one of the computers putting inter-nex message through to Node 3.  
  
"Hi, Frankie, how come you're not on the secure system?" Said, a small hairy picture with rather impressive fangs.  
  
"I'm not Lucas, I'm a friend of his and I don't know the pass word for the other system. I was hoping you could help me with something." Another small picture, - this one with greenish skin and stitches around his head replied.  
  
"Who are you?" Nick asked from the other end of the line.  
  
"I'm Ben Krieg - the supply officer on seaQuest." Ben replied.  
  
"What you did on April fool's day - that was so awesome." Nick typed, obviously recognising the name.  
  
Ben couldn't help but smile at this, but he continued. "I need your help, Wolf man."  
  
"Is there something wrong with Lucas?"  
  
"No, Lucas is fine - I need to know if this means anything to you." Ben pressed send on the computer and a scan of the paper Lucas had been burning winged its way across the nex to Nick.  
  
There was a pause when Ben assumed Lucas's friend read through the page. "This is amazing." Finally came through.  
  
"So this was something important then?"  
  
"Important - If this programme does what the conclusion says it does, this would revolutionise the whole Artificial Intelligence industry. What do you mean was?"  
  
Ben wasn't sure what Lucas would object to his friend being told, so he hedged around all the other questions Nick posed. But while one part of his brain was busy hedging, another part was thinking of a solution to another problem.  
  
"Wolf man, how difficult would it be to hack into a computer, and by-pass secretaries, and keep the line open even if the person on the other end of the call tried to cut you off?" He asked.  
  
"Is there a security programme on the system?" wolf man asked, now all business.  
  
"Um, probably."  
  
"Did Lucas design it?"  
  
"I don't think so." Ben said.  
  
"Then I can hack into it, and do what ever I want." Wolf man said, with just a small touch of pride.  
  
"In that case, could you put a call through for me?"  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Lawrence Wolenczak was sitting in his office, putting the finishing touches to the piece of research he'd been working on for the last six months, when the vid-phone sprang into life for no apparent reason.  
  
Not wanting to be interrupted, Lawrence leaned over and disconnected the call. Or at least he tried to disconnect it. But something was stopping the computer recognising the command.  
  
A face appeared on the screen, of a man probably in his thirties, with dark hair and a UEO uniform.  
  
"Who are you? What is the meaning of this?" He demanded.  
  
"Dr. Wolenczak? We need to talk. My name is Benjamin Krieg; of the UEO flag ship seaQuest. If you want my serial number so that you can make some sort of complaint against me, I'll be happy to provide it along with the contact details of the appropriate disciplinary board. I'm calling you about your son, Lucas - about sixteen years old fair hair, a lot of healed bones - maybe you remember him?"  
  
Lawrence Wolenczak's mouth opened and closed and then formed the words. "How dare you talk to me like this?" Although the broken bones comment raised a warning flag in the back of his mind, he was not going to stand for check off a mere Lieutenant.  
  
"I dare, because I care about Lucas, I don't just pretend to care when I want him to do something, or when I want to impress investors, but full time. I dare because I'm not the kind of monster who could ever make a child thing they deserve to be beaten, and I dare, because Lucas deserves better then you." Ben spat out.  
  
"I'll have you commission for this!" Lawrence shouted at the screen.  
  
"I'm sure Captain Bridger would been very happy to listen to your complaint against me, and I'm sure when he hears why I called you he'll see someone locked up for life without parole. That someone won't be me Lawrence Wolenczak."  
  
"What makes you think you're wonderful Captain will believe you over me?"  
  
"Lucas, has a broken arm" Ben said with icy calmness. "Dr. Westphalen is very protective of Lucas, I wonder how difficult it will be to convince her that Lucas needs a full body scan - just to check for any injuries she's missed. What do you think that scan will show?"  
  
"Lucas is my son, I'll get him off your stupid little boat before the end of the day! I know what's best for my son, not you!" Maybe Dr. Wolenczak, really believed that what he was doing was best for Lucas, Ben thought, and in a way that worried him even more.  
  
"No, you won't Doctor, because any man who's victim of choice is a little kid, is a coward, and if you come any where near this boat, you'll find me - and I'm not a coward, but I'll be standing in front of Lucas, and I don't doubt, the rest of this crew will be there too, if I tell them what I know."  
  
Lawrence seemed to reconsider his tone at this point. "How much do you want?" he asked, the model of a calm businessman. He knew better than most every man had his price and he guessed that Ben's co-operation wouldn't be too expensive a thing to buy.  
  
Ben froze. "Money? I don't want money, you stupid little..." With effort Ben reigned in his temper.  
  
"Then what do you want, Lieutenant?"  
  
"This is what I want, you're going to start being a proper father to your son." Lawrence half nodded when he thought of what he would have to say to Lucas about involving other people in family business, but his face froze when Ben continued. "But from a distance - you're going to write Lucas a nice little letter every week, and when the Captain contacts you, your secretary will be under orders to put the call straight through. Understand?" Lawrence nodded stiffly, so Ben continued, "But, you're not going to be able to see you're son on shore leaves are you, Lawrence - you'll be unavoidably out of town, so Lucas will stay with me, or the Captain, or whoever he wants, but not with you."  
  
"Do you have any other demands?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"No." Ben said, "No demands, just a warning - I know what's going on now, so if anything happen to Lucas, if you so much as say one word out of place to him, let along lay one hand on him - you'll die. I have contacts in every seedy business there is - so don't think I won't be able to arrange it." Ben said, almost happily, as if he couldn't wait to call one of those contacts and put a price on the good doctors head.  
  
"Why should I believe that you wouldn't do that anyway?" Lawrence asked, the sheen of nervous sweat beading on his forehead.  
  
"Because, as worthless as you are, Lucas loves you. And that means you get one more chance - just don't blow it." With that the connection cut out, and Lawrence sat back in his chair, too shocked even to wonder how the call go though in the first place.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Ben sat back and stared into space, wondering if he'd done the right thing. Probably not, he decided. But it was as right a thing as he could think of. Maybe when Lucas had recovered from all that had happened recently, Ben thought, he would try to talk to Lucas again, and if that didn't work, maybe he would drop a few hints to the Captain.  
  
If push came to shove, he considered, he could point Dr. Westphalen in the right direction - she was possible even more stubborn than Lucas, and her glare was famous on the boat for it's ability to keep Lucas in check.  
  
Either way, one day, Ben was sure, Lucas would be able to look back and know that things with his father had been bad, but they were also all in the past.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
The End.  
  
***** ***** *****  
  
Finished! I don't know how well the ending worked, but like it or loath it, that's what popped into my head, so that's what I wrote. Please let me know what you thought. Good? Bad? Indifferent? All comments, flames, and major credit cards accepted on the review board.  
  
Thanks again to all those people who've reviewed, and especially those who have been patiently following all the way through.  
  
Cadi. 


End file.
